Digital Nomads in Las Palmas are an important element of a changing economy, we are facing a crisis, the old economy and society are still alive but can`t keep working as usual and the new has not yet arrived…
Many of us sit down in front of the TV, complaining about inflation, politicians, the new people coming from everywhere, etc, etc… we are unhappy, leaving boring lives, with boring jobs in a boring consumption system.
To relax and get on with our lives, we go shopping to get things that we don’t need or buy the best car we can´t afford…
Gentrification in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
We live on a small hiper-connected planet, the Canaries have built massive hotels, cities, and facilities that have destroyed most of our territory and our identity, to get on the train of “massive tourism”.
After feeling overcrowded, over-polluted, overpopulated, and over-consumption, we don’t like what we have done…
In the last few years, we have seen how the low part of Las Palmas city has seen a strong process of gentrification, mostly the Guanarteme neighborhood, El Istmo, and La Isleta neighborhoods.
This topic is very complex and has different reasons, to name a few…
Not enough with all of this, some people called “Digital Nomads“ are coming to the islands, for many of us this group of workers is seen as-
- Rich, not rich, extremely rich.
- Young
- Work for an hour a day, not every day, on something most of us don’t understand
- Going to the beach and partying every night
Wouuu.. It´s like a dream come true, too nice to be true…
Digital Nomads in Las Palmas are guilty of almost everything that is happening in our cities together with Airbnb…
As you can see, a complex problem with too many local implications turns into some kind of, external-simplistic cause-effect problem.
What is coming from outside brings the destruction of our society and economy, think about migration, many newspapers talk about “the problem of migration”…
Digital Nomads
Borders are blurred, the nation-state is in crisis, globalization is all over, internet has changed the way we live, work, and socialize.
Work as we know it is in a deep crisis, workers don’t want to go back to the office, flexible work is here to stay, young generations want to enjoy life while working, and they want all together.
The new paradigm is changing the way we live, life experiences are more important than possessions. Freedom, flexibility, and independence are concepts that forge the way many young generations want to live.
New values are-
- Feeling belonging in a world based on individualism through community
- Minimalism lifestyle with few possessions to focus on what is important
- Being open-minded because many of them travel all over the world to understand different cultures, means having a richer and more meaningful life.
Remote workers, Digital Nomads, and the like, are the basis of the new economy, called the “Knowledge economy”, they are living one step ahead, with fewer possessions, sharing goods and knowledge in spaces called coworking or colivings, looking for community, not fighting against any culture they encounter but understanding it…
In general, we are afraid of the new, and this is a new way to live, like it or not.
For an economy in crisis and based on consumption, this group of people is in some ways a problem, because their concept of consumption is different.
What is more important, Nomads and remote workers want to live in a local community, with locals, buying in local businesses.
Gentrification means that newcomers push the old community outside of the neighborhood or from a particular area.
New ones don’t share the space with the old ones, but if there is no local community, there are no Nomads, because they don’t like to live in a tourist place or area without local identity…
I´m missing something here or I´m not able to understand it. I´m not saying that is not happening in some ways, but in theory is not the intention…
Something is wrong in all this Nomads Go Home topic that is spreading around… Remote workers are eager to understand our identity, but are we ready to explain, and talk openly about who we are? about ourselves.
After 50 years of offering German beer in international chain hotels, located on man-made beaches that look like Caribean, to people who don’t care about our identity, this is a huge challenge in my opinion…
Tolerance and openness
Canary Islands is what it is because we have been open and tolerant to new ideas, people, cultures, communities, companies, investments, etc… over the last 150 years…
The word here is tolerance, our economy and society are based on this concept, and in my opinion, this concept is in crisis. We are not happy anymore with being open to people and ideas.
Most nomads and remote workers don´t have a house, they are not rich, and work many hours a week, more than 40 in most cases, but not from 9 to 5, but when they think they are more productive during the day or night including weekends, sharing goods and flats, helps them to spend their money in what they think is more meaningful.
The way in which this group of workers has been described does not fit with reality…
Digital Nomads in Las Palmas are helping us understand some of the answers to the new paradigm…
They bring new ideas, business, and networks, that are priceless in a changing scenario, if we close our islands to this new fresh knowledge, we are stepping out of the next train…
Gentrification, high prices, and the housing crisis are challenges for the Canary Islands, we need the best minds to solve it because it is a complex situation, and we need a more complex approach…
How can Remote workers give back to the community in Las Palmas? Do they have opportunities to impact and connect with locals… This is the question we are trying to answer in EcoIsleta…
Let´s keep talking about it
We love talking about this topics, join us in our open dinners, or suggest any open activity for the city or the community…
