Citizenship À La Carte?: Migration and «digital nomads»

Abstract: This article focuses on the increasingly discussed phenomenon of digital nomads. Digital nomads are individuals who leave their home countries for various reasons and choose to live primarily in exotic locations. Their legal status in the coun-tries they reside in is often ambiguous. Thanks to remote work opportunities, they earn income outside their host countries and attempt to build relatively comfortable lives in places where the general cost of living is lower. Due to uncertain residency statuses, they frequently change countries to comply with visa regulations.The article aims to explore why and how people become digital nomads, whether this trend has the potential to transform the relationship between nation-states and their citizens, and if there is a connection between the decline of welfare state social security provisions and the decision to adopt a nomadic lifestyle.The study draws on a review of existing literature as well as the author’s field ex-periences as a participant observer in various digital nomad hubs in Thailand and Vietnam, supplemented by interviews conducted with digital nomads.Keywords: Digital Nomad; Mobility; Geoarbitrage; Precaria; Co-working; Welfare State; Remote Work; Migration; Nation-State.