In fact, cultural extraction often parallels neocolonialism—and here’s the uncomfortable truth: digital nomadism can replicate these colonial patterns. When affluent foreigners settle in communities across the Global South, take advantage of low costs, and reshape local economies around their lifestyles, the dynamic begins to echo older forms of exploitation. Many digital nomads arrive with the privileges of currency strength, global mobility, and tech capital, yet contribute little beyond service-based consumption.

Even government policies play into this dynamic. In recent years, countries have introduced ‘digital nomad visas’ to attract foreign income and investment, while failing to address the downstream effects: housing crises, rising costs of living, and environmental degradation. These schemes—seen in countries like Armenia, Estonia, Portugal, Indonesia, and Costa Rica—typically restrict access to local job markets, yet still favour affluent foreigners who can afford to live comfortably while drawing on local infrastructure and services. 

The result? Local communities are sidelined—facing displacement, cultural erosion, and economic exclusion as neighbourhoods gentrify and prices rise. The benefits flow upwards, while the burdens fall on those with the least power to absorb them. It's a tale as old as colonial trade routes: extract resources—now in the form of lifestyle, experience, and aesthetics—then move on to the next ‘unspoiled’ location before the damage sets in. Unless digital nomads critically engage with these dynamics, they risk becoming complicit in a contemporary form of exploitation.