THE GLOBAL OFFICE: A NEW OPPORTUNITY FOR THE CITY OF BUENOS AIRES?
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Citation Quiroga Barrera Oro, Martin Javier. 2021. THE GLOBAL OFFICE: A NEW OPPORTUNITY FOR THE CITY OF BUENOS AIRES?. Master's thesis, Harvard Graduate School of Design.
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THE GLOBAL OFFICE: A NEW OPPORTUNITY FOR THE CITY OF
BUENOS AIRES?
A Thesis Submitted to the Department of Urban Planning and Design, Harvard University Graduate School of Design by
Martín Javier QUIROGA BARRERA ORO
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Master in Urban Planning
May 2021
The author hereby grants Harvard University permission to reproduce and distribute copies of this Thesis, in whole or in part, for educational purposes.
______Student Thesis Advisor
THE GLOBAL OFFICE: A NEW OPPORTUNITY FOR THE CITY OF BUENOS AIRES?
Martin J. Quiroga Barrera Oro
Thesis Supervisor: Diane Davis, Charles Dyer Norton Professor of Regional Planning
and Urbanism
CONTENTS
ABSTRACT ...... 8 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...... 9 GLOSSARY ...... 11 INTRODUCTION ...... 13 Case study selection ...... 16 A brief overview of Buenos Aires ...... 17 Motivation ...... 24 LITERATURE REVIEW ...... 30 Teleworking and Telemigration ...... 30 Location determinants and preferences ...... 33 The creative class ...... 36 Digital Nomads ...... 38 RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY ...... 40 Interviews ...... 40 Survey ...... 41 Cartographic analysis ...... 41 CHAPTER 1: THE GLOBAL OFFICE ...... 43 Living here, working there ...... 45 Sending and receiving cities ...... 49 The categories of telemigrant, digital nomad and relocated worker ...... 53 CHAPTER 2: TELEWORKING IN BUENOS AIRES: A RECEIVING CITY? ...... 57 Could Buenos Aires be an opportunity for teleworking? ...... 58 Enablers ...... 60 Human talent and labor costs ...... 60 Education and the innovative ecosystem ...... 62 Diversity and Culture ...... 63 Barriers ...... 66 Fiscal regulations ...... 67 Foreign exchange controls ...... 68 Labor market conditions ...... 69 Visa programs...... 71 Geographic location ...... 72 Digital Nomads’ priorities and perceptions ...... 72 Survey Results ...... 75 “BA Nómades Digitales” (BA Digital Nomads) ...... 77 CHAPTER 3: WHAT COULD BE THE IMPLICATIONS OF TELEWORKING FOR BUENOS AIRES? ...... 80 Economic implications ...... 80 Effects on the urban GDP ...... 80 Fiscal revenues ...... 82 Spatial implications ...... 84 Office space ...... 84 Airbnbfication ...... 85 Social implications ...... 89 Housing affordability ...... 89 Urban heritage ...... 90 Human capital ...... 94 Localizing these implications: the Parque Patricios Technological District...... 96 CHAPTER 4. POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS ...... 102 Economic implications ...... 102 Boost the innovative ecosystem ...... 102 Create fiscal incentives ...... 104 Spatial recommendations ...... 105 Office into housing ...... 105 Regulations on short-term rentals...... 106 Social recommendations ...... 106 More affordable options ...... 106 Preserving our past, present, and future ...... 108 Investing in our talent ...... 110 Localizing the recommendation in Parque Patricios TD ...... 111 CONCLUSIONS ...... 114 BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 118 APPENDIX A ...... 133 APPENDIX B ...... 137
LIST OF DIAGRAMS, FIGURES, GRAPHS, MAPS AND TABLES
Diagram 1. The Global Office. Source: own elaboration...... 52
Figure 1. Digital nomads at the confluence of four concepts...... 39 Figure 2. Initiatives to attract digital nomads...... 47 Figure 3. Word cloud of digital nomads’ reasons to migrate...... 54 Figure 4. Top occupations for digital nomads...... 55 Figure 5. El Ateneo Grand Splendid...... 66 Figure 6. Perceptions of digital nomads...... 73 Figure 7. Pros and cons of Buenos Aires identified by digital nomads...... 74 Figure 8. Top destination for digital nomads...... 75 Figure 9. Welcome Kit on the BA Digital Nomads Portal...... 78 Figure 10. The progressive expansion of Airbnbuildings on 5700 Soler st., Palermo.87 Figure 11. Six heights approved in the NUC...... 92
Graph 1. Income gaps across nations...... 46 Graph 2. Evolution of purchasing power parity of the salary in the formal private sector (in “blue” dollars) – 2000-2020...... 61 Graph 3. Estimates for growth of digital nomads and potential revenues...... 82 Graph 4. Monthly housing rents: digital nomads and other remote workers...... 88
Map 1. Concentration of Airbnb units and co-working spaces in the CBA...... 86 Map 2. Location of digital nomads in the CBA (April 2021)...... 89 Map 3. Supply of Airbnb listings in Parque Patricios. October 12th, 2017...... 97 Map 4. Supply of Airbnb listings in Parque Patricios. May 4th, 2019...... 98 Map 5. Location of national and foreign companies in Parque Patricios TD...... 99 Map 6. Status of urban heritage...... 109
ABSTRACT
Across industries, companies are reducing costs by minimizing office space and sourcing talent from geographic areas with lower salaries. These two changes have accelerated the adoption of teleworking and could foster an exodus of jobs from leading innovation hubs ("sending cities") to emerging areas ("receiving cities"). In response to the pandemic, municipalities have launched programs to lure workers worldwide and underpin sectors such as tourism and hospitality. This thesis analyzes the main enablers and barriers for teleworking in the City of Buenos Aires and explores the potential economic, spatial, and social implications, particularly considering the influx of high-income earners. Understanding the factors that affect these initiatives and their implications can contribute to the design of national and local policies that attract new visitors and residents, while preserving urban inclusion, resilience, sustainability, and livability.
Keywords telemigration, teleworking, digital nomads, spatial analysis, socioeconomic inequality, urban economics, City of Buenos Aires
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
My time at Harvard University and this thesis have been a process of both professional and academic growth that would not have been possible without the many kinds of assistance I have received for these past two years. Meeting and finding a lot of people working so passionately has been extremely rewarding and motivating.
I want to start by especially thanking Diane Davis, who not only supervised this thesis, but fully supported and guided me throughout the process, pushing me to adopt new lenses and reflect on this topic in complementary ways. I also want to thank Professor
Jaclene Begley, Professor Gordon Hanson, Professor Ann Forsyth, Professor David
Gamble, Professor Jill Kelly, and Professor Carole Voulgaris, who took the time to discuss with me and shared their suggestions and ideas to help me improve this thesis.
I also want to express my gratitude to Caro Jalil and Flor Cabral, who has helped me since the very beginning, for generously taking the time to read my thesis and giving me invaluable feedback. A heartfelt thanks to Ignacio Lafuente, who enriched this study from different perspectives throughout endless discussions. I also want to deeply thank
Sole Patiño and Livia Minoja for helping me improve every design and visual detail.
Special thanks to Ale Schwint, Tam Egger, Julia Hollnagel, Julia Anderson, Cris Dávila González and Mai Magnetto who devoted their expertise and time to review my data collection tools. To Estefanía Lotito, with whom I discussed and validated the research methods and to Anita Ramírez and Mauro Chelillo, who kindly contributed with suggested bibliography. I would also like to acknowledge the time of those I interviewed; without their commitment and enthusiasm, I could not have conducted this research.
To my classmates and other Harvard and MIT friends for sharing their ideas and having made this journey extremely enjoyable. To Clara Amenyo, Charles Hatfield, Elena Ion and Elifmina Mizrahi for sharing countless hours at Lamont library and on virtual
Pomodoro sessions, being constant sources of support and fun.
To my friends, Facu and Javi, with whom I have extensively shared and discussed this thesis. To Lola, Je, Emma, Zam, Jor, Fer, Livia, Manuel, Juan, Marie, Lau, Lucho, Flor,
Sebas, Cathy, Vero, Euge, Nacho, and Noe. Finally, but not least, to mamá Adriana and papá Carlos for their unconditional support.
GLOSSARY
AGIP Administración General de Ingresos Públicos (General Administration of
Public Revenues)
CAP Comisión de Asuntos Patrimoniales (Commission of Heritage Issues)
CBA City of Buenos Aires
CESSI Cámara de la Industria Argentina del Software (Chamber of the Argentine
Industry of Software)
EPH Encuesta Permanente de Hogares (Permanent Survey of Households)
FLISOL Festival Latinoamericano de Software Libre (Latin American Free Software
Install Fest)
GCBA Government of the City of Buenos Aires
IIBB Ingresos Brutos (Gross Income)
IVA Impuesto al Valor Agregado (Value-Added Tax)
NUC New Urban Code ODC Observatorio del Derecho a la Ciudad (Observatory for the Right to the
City)
PIED Plan Integral de Educación Digital (Integral Plan for Digital Education)
TD Technological District
THE GLOBAL OFFICE: A NEW OPPORTUNITY FOR BUENOS AIRES?
"work is not necessarily going to take place in offices or factories. It is going to take place everywhere, anytime" Alvin Toffler
INTRODUCTION
Although many sectors have consistently resisted teleworking, the expansion and consolidation of this modality have taken place over the past few years, and Covid-19 has acted as a worldwide catalyzer. Cities have radically changed: thousands of stores closed (particularly in downtown areas), almost empty metros and buses, bars, and restaurants displaying tables on the street, bike lanes on high demand, crowded public spaces and parks, and many professionals working from almost anywhere except a traditional office. With the emergence of this large footloose class of workers, and the tourist and hospitality industries in decline, many governments have launched programs and initiatives to lure those remote workers (often dubbed “digital nomads”) in order to leverage the local economic development. On the one hand, companies have adopted ways to continue decreasing costs: reducing office space and sourcing talent from geographic areas with lower wages.
Conceived as an international wage competition (Baldwin 2019), telemigration is a tendency that has taken place across several industries, being the software sector among its pioneers. On the other hand, these mobility restrictions have hit industries such as tourism and hospitality, severely affecting cities' economies and unemployment rates. In response to this crisis, municipalities have increasingly launched programs to lure remote workers (such as digital nomads) worldwide and counteract these affected sectors.
Inspired by the concept of "global village" coined by McLuhan in the 60s, the use of digital and communication technologies has enabled the intensification of worldwide interdependence, configuring a sort of global office. The picture of a daily commute to a physical office where the employee stays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and performs their activities at a fixed workstation (that desk populated with the employee’s family pictures, books, and mug) has been increasingly contested. The tendency seems to point towards a hybrid modality (combining in-person and remote modalities depending on the nature and needs of each person1), with ownerless workstations
(including co-working spaces, no more than 15 minutes away from home - at least for
1 While some people experience less interruptions from colleagues when they are working remotely, some meetings are more efficient or effective in-person. But even the experience of a brainstorming session to design a new product could be improved in the next few years thanks to the use of augmented- and virtual reality tools (Boler 2021). However, other tasks can be easily fragmented and decentralized to areas where labor costs are significantly lower. a couple of days a week), and much more flexibility (for instance, in terms of schedule) for workers.
But all the current ways of teleworking we know today are probably still the tip of the iceberg. Conference calls might continue to evolve with the introduction of recent innovations such as online spaces (e.g., Google Collab), virtual reality, and other technologies that will facilitate the way people produce, communicate, and exchange ideas. Thus, telemigration could foster an exodus of many jobs from leading innovation hubs ("sending cities") to emerging areas ("receiving cities"), where three kinds of workers converge: digital nomads, permanently relocated professionals, and telemigrants.
While the effects of teleworking on companies and workers have been extensively researched, discussions of the impact of this phenomenon on cities are still incipient.
At first glance, attracting remote workers from all over, and local professionals working for international companies, could sound promising to any city: this population earns an income that is significantly above the local median salary, which may boost local economic development and increase fiscal revenues. However, the absence of effective urban policies may exacerbate existing patterns of socio-economic and spatial inequality, by creating exclusive areas where residential housing and amenities are commodified, threatening the stability of long-standing residents —many of whom are immersed in the local labor market.
Case study selection
As previously mentioned, the software development industry has been one of the pioneers in this telemigration transition. It often pays the highest salaries, creating significant income gaps between IT and software workers with respect to other workers. Considering that Argentina is featured as one of the best countries for IT outsourcing (and the top country in Latin America in this regard)2, I decided to select the City of Buenos Aires (CBA), where 9% of people work in this industry, as a case study.
However, this is not the only reason why I chose to focus on this location. CBA has been a gateway city -receiving different migration waves over the decades in the 19th and
20th centuries- and is often recognized as one of the top destinations for digital nomads3. In fact, the GCBA (Government of the City of Buenos Aires) launched the program BA Digital Nomads in December 2020, with the aim of increasing the number of such visitors. In addition, I believe the situation of CBA is particular in at least one aspect: while the City offers the best quality of life in Latin America, Argentina has historically undergone extreme volatility and successive economic crises. In other words, as a consequence of an unstable macroeconomic situation at the national level,
Buenos Aires has been faced with several regulations4 (such as foreign exchange
2 See https://relevant.software/blog/4-best-countries-to-outsource-software-development-to/ 3 According to a survey conducted with digital nomads, the CBA was ranked in the 15th position last year. See https://www.storagecafe.com/blog/best-destinations-for-digital-nomads-covid19-aftermath/ 4 While some of these regulations are more permanent and structural (e.g., fiscal regulations), others have been a consequence of the pandemic, such as the border closure, which prevented non- residents to enter the country, or high restrictions to mobility, which may have discouraged some people to relocate to the city. restrictions) that may have hindered the attraction or retention of talent and capital.
However, the City has partially diverged from the rest of the country's economic performance (Hausmann et al. 2020), proof that it has built some degree of urban economic resilience. Finally, I selected CBA for methodological reasons; as a result of the pandemic and associated travel restrictions, I have spent most of the time writing this thesis in this city, my hometown, so I was able to conduct some in-person interviews while the number of Covid-19 cases was under control.
Prior to diving into the thesis, I would like to provide a brief overview of the most prominent political, cultural, and socio-economic factors that affected, shaped, transformed, and developed the spatial configuration of the City of Buenos Aires.
A brief overview of Buenos Aires
Those who are familiar with the field of economic growth and development have often heard the expression -mistakenly attributed to the Russian-born American economist and statistician Simon Kuznets- that there are four kinds of nations in the world: developed countries, developing countries, Japan and Argentina. Although no official record can be found for this quote, Argentina as a subject of study has caught the attention of scholars working in different disciplines; it is often mentioned as an anomalous, exceptional, or mysterious nation. As the eighth-largest country in the world, with a wealth of natural resources, and an endangered but still extended well- educated middle class, Argentina "grew rapidly for five decades up until 1920, becoming one of the richest countries in the world, but then started a long slide"
(Acemoglu and Robinson 2012, 48.). Economists often point out that the country, as other Latin American and Middle-Eastern nations (Gill and Kharas 2007), has been a victim of the middle-income trap for the past decades.
While the assertion that the nation's wealth was truly that high could be contested, none can deny that Argentina was quite prosperous (Glaeser, Di Tella and Llach 2018).
That prosperity translated into a rapid urbanization process between 1860-70 to 1930, mainly focused on the nation's capital. "A visitor to Buenos Aires then would have marveled at the splendors of the city: the impressive opera house, the graceful architecture, the sophisticated railway" (Taylor 1992, 908) and metro system, which is one of the first in the world and a paragon of progress at that time. The modernization process of Buenos Aires, as that of many Latin American cities, entailed an imitation of the European urban centers, and echoed Haussmann's style (Romero 1976). By the late
19th century, the city was populated by dance halls, cafeterias, and bars -which concentrated the political, cultural, and literary life-, theatres, cinemas, and several other attractions (García Falcó and Méndez 2010).
The Great Depression of 1929, followed by the first coup d’état led by José Félix
Uriburu, brought about a deep crisis for the giant agricultural exporter, which impacted the blooming Buenos Aires. The end of the occupation process of the productive area in the neighboring Humid Pampas and the difficulties to own land meant an expulsion of the rural population (Gutiérrez 1992). This was especially aggravated by the collapse in prices and the deterioration of producers' situation, in particular of the smaller ones, setting the conditions for a rural exodus (Romero 2013). The technification of agricultural activities also pushed a lot of farmers away from the rural areas. All the while, factories proliferated, and required an increasingly large workforce as a result of the national strategy of import substitution industrialization. Thus, a period of internal exodus or rural flight started. "The arrival of four million European immigrants between
1880 and 1914 had already had a strong demographic impact on Buenos Aires (...)
Nonetheless, rural migrations beginning in 1936 occurred in a shorter time period and in a different urban and social scenario. The consolidation of the city's urban fabric, as well as its service and transportation infrastructure, had advanced significantly between these two moments. (...) By 1936, while there were still some open spaces, the city was almost filled" (Aboy 2007, 494). Hence, the housing supply was in shortage, and the new urban residents moved into shelters and informal settlements known as "villas miserias".
In 1946, Juan Domingo Perón took power, inaugurating a new period in Argentine history. The Peronist movement – defined by its three tenets: political sovereignty, social justice, and economic independence – represented the expression of the welfare state in Argentina. "An increasingly interventionist state in the post-1945 period made it possible for many families to gain access to a decent home. In the 1940s, the government responded to the demographic pressure of the internal migrants by launching a significant public housing program. Indeed, according to sociologist Gino
Germani, (…), this new urban population constituted the political base of Peronism"
(Aboy 2007, 494). In 1955, the coup d’état called "Liberating Revolution" (Revolución Libertadora) put an end to the second mandate of Perón, who had to be exiled until 1973, when he returned to Argentina. He assumed his third term but died in 1974, succeeded by his wife and vice-president, Isabel Martínez de Perón. However, in 1976 the last dictatorship, aimed to combat the guerrillas and leftist movements, started. Rafael
Videla's government is known for having perpetrated the most atrocious violations of human rights, resulting in 30,000 people who were subject to forced disappearance.
"The regime enacted a comprehensive urban reform programme that complemented more well-known actions and helped align Argentina with the west" (Hoyt 2015, 647).
With the introduction of several administrative changes, the de facto government sought to implement a series of projects to create a more efficient and modern metropolis. Concretely, under the administration of General Devaldo A. Cacciatore5, the new mayor who was in power from 1976 to 1982, authorities intended to convert the capital into a faster, cleaner and greener city to save the nation from collapse (Hoyt
2015). Just to mention one of those reforms that transformed the urban fabric, I will briefly refer to the Urban Highways Plan (Plan de Autopistas Urbanas - PAU)67. In order to facilitate the transport of people and goods and thus foster economic development, the government intended to improve the transportation networks (Hoyt 2015) by
5 The mayor, General Devaldo A. Cacciatore, shared the regime’s vision in his reorganization and control of Buenos Aires. He dissolved the neighborhood councils that represented the different “barrios” (neighborhoods) and “filled municipal positions with like-minded, eager professionals such as engineers and architects, thus welcoming technical expertise in the city’s management” (Hoyt 2015, 652). 6 This plan intended to build 9 highways across the city, resulting in 74 kilometers. Finally, only two of them were inaugurated: Urban Highway 1 (25 de Mayo) and 6 (Perito Moreno). 7 This PAU sought to favor the use of the individual automobile by building highways and buried parking lots and broadening avenues and streets (Jajamovich and Menazzi, 2012). building these highways. Their construction implied the demolition of thousands of homes and a violent rupture of the urban fabric in the surrounding neighborhoods 8, creating an air pollution source and visual and noise issues in residential areas
(Jajamovich and Menazzi 2012).
Meanwhile, a more dynamic private-led suburbanization process had started. The construction rates of gated communities "peaked in the 1970s, 1980s and, most spectacularly, in the 1990s, when their number quadrupled and their combined area was 1.6 times that of the city of Buenos Aires itself" (Libertun de Duren 2006, 311). The expansion of information and communication technologies (ICTs), higher mobility and changes in residential preferences (mostly from mid- and high-income sectors), motivated the relocation of families to peripheral areas (de Mattos 2010), increasing the urban sprawl9.
In the 1990s, the policies aimed at promoting urban regeneration were run by forms of entrepreneurialism, leading to large urban projects that created unique pieces of the city (Cuenya and Corral 2011). An iconic case is the neighborhood Puerto Madero, a vast area next to the eastern riverfront, close to the administrative and financial district and with 16 buildings of great architectural heritage value. Private investors and
8 It is critical to consider that the construction of those highways not only created those geographic barriers but also implied the destruction of the historical, cultural, urban and architectural heritage in areas of the south of Buenos Aires. 9 Mattos highlights that the Latin American cities have been spatially reconfigured, progressively adopting a metropolitan structure presented as polycentric, but also expanded and diffused (de Mattos 2010). developers bought public land, restored the docks and built new market-rate buildings targeted to corporate users and high-income residents (Cuenya and Corral 2011).
The economic, political, and institutional crisis of 2001 exposed the limits of the neoliberal model. The economic reactivation reaffirmed the existence of new mid- and high-income sectors and a territorial self-segregation pattern similar to that of the
1990s, reflected in the construction of high rises in the city and gated communities in the suburbs. The flip side of this phenomenon was the expansion of informal settlements, even though there were some government attempts to incorporate these slums into the "formal city" (Ciccolella and Baer 2008).
In 2007, Mauricio Macri, an engineer, businessman, and former president of a soccer team, was elected Governor of the city, representing the first political conquest of the center-right party10. He had founded the PRO (Republican Proposal)11 in 2005. Thus, the PRO represents the consolidation of a process of neo-liberalization of the state, which had started before under Telerman's administration (Cravino and Palombi
2015). His mayoral election campaign was primarily focused on urban crime and violence, emphasizing that the public space was dangerous (Calzado and Gallardo
2019). The PRO's vision for Buenos Aires has been characterized as a model of an
10 Cravino and Palombi (2015) mention that even though political scientists characterized PRO as a right-wing party, that definition does not accurately reflect the political party, which was pragmatic and had some nuances. The PRO is composed by upper-middle classes combining long-standing professional politicians with leaders who did not necessarily come from the political scene (Vommaro, 2013, as cited in Cravino and Palombi, 2015). 11 PRO became a national party in 2011. After forming a coalition with the historic party UCR (Radical Civic Union) and Civic Coalition ARI, Mauricio Macri won the presidential elections in 2015. "exclusionary city" that pushes low-income sectors out not only by exerting violent coercion, but also by leaving it up to the market forces (Cravino and Palombi 2015).
One of the initiatives was the revitalization of the south of the City. To do so, the GCBA developed infrastructure projects such as the metro extension of the H Line, which improved the connectivity of the south with the north. Also, the GCBA inaugurated different creative districts12 and the new building of the city hall in Parque Patricios.
When Macri took office as Argentina's president in 2015, his chief of cabinet Horacio
Rodríguez Larreta became the new mayor. Unlike his predecessor, Rodríguez Larreta comes from a family traditionally involved in the political sphere, and has had a long trajectory in the public administration since 1993, when he joined the Sub-secretariat of Investments and was responsible for building and maintaining the relationships with foreign investors. He adhered to Macri's agenda and spoke of citizen security as one of his flagship issues during his 2019 campaign (Díaz Vélez, 2020).
Rodríguez Larreta’s administration continued with the decentralization of public offices, aiming to go from 84 in 2015 to 24 in 2023. Most of these buildings have been relocated in the City’s southern corridor, which has created resistance because some advocacy groups and civil society organizations denounced the attempt of a top-down gentrification. Last December, the BA Digital Nomads program was launched. Aimed at attracting and hosting worldwide talent from the knowledge sector, the initiative is still at an early stage. Although it is too early to anticipate the potential implications of
12 The first was the Technological District in Parque Patricios in 2008, followed by the Audiovisual District (2011), the Art District (2012), the Design District (2013) and the Sports District (2014). the program, its success without policies or regulations that prevent unintended consequences (such as displacement or segregation) could accelerate or exacerbate the gentrifying processes reported in some areas of the CBA.
The policies and their implications explained in the following chapters should be read keeping in mind all these historical factors that explain and help understand the
Buenos Aires we all know today.
Motivation
The main motivation for this research is to understand how cities can be catalyzers of economic and social development. Specifically, I seek to understand how cities can contribute to strengthening economic resilience and overcoming the so-called economic external restrictions as those that led Argentina to face succeeding crises over the past decades. Two of the most common concerns in the literature that focuses on Latin-American economies have been the aforementioned middle-income trap, and the recurring crises of the balance-of-payments that affect peripheral industrialization, as these bring about bottlenecks and constraints for economic growth (Furtado 1958;
Bielschowsky 1998). In these contexts, the drain and insufficiency of foreign currency have caused financial volatility and an unstable macroeconomic situation that have had curtailed growth periods.
Over the decades, Argentina has evidenced what has been dubbed "stop and go" cycles: alternate periods of economic growth (the “go” stage), characterized by a significant volume of exports and increasing consumption, and crises (or “stop” stage), in which the demand for imports outpaces exports at such a rate that the amount of foreign currency attracted by the agricultural sector and the national industry became insufficient. Historically, this growing demand for foreign currency has always culminated with a payment balance crisis.
The knowledge-based industries (e.g., IT and software development) are labor- intensive -employing both mid and high-skilled workers- and have virtually no imported components in their production process, so the impact on the payment balance in terms of demand of foreign currency would be marginal13. The relative independence of the import of inputs -such as intermediate goods to produce and grow- turns the knowledge-based sector external to the long-standing tension between the agricultural and industrialization sectors, which could make its industries
(and the urban economies in which these activities take place) more resilient in the face of the macroeconomic fluctuations14. Even more, this sector can contribute to the national economic development by, for instance, increasing the number of exports.
The second key promising aspect of the knowledge economy is its possibility to boost the regional economies and thus contribute not only to overcoming the hypertrophied
13 Software development, as many other sectors, require capital goods such as computers -whose amortization, in accounting terms, is every 3 years. However, these industries do not have inputs or intermediary components that need to be imported in order to continue the productive process. 14 A well-known dichotomy is that export-oriented sectors, such as grain producers and exporters, benefit from a high foreign exchange rate, while other sectors require a low foreign exchange rate to continue growing. Among the latter, national industries need to import some of the intermediate components, which means that if they do not have access to a “cheap dollar”, their production process stalls. model of urban development in Argentina but also promoting a more territorial equity.
In order for knowledge industries (such as software, among other digital ones) to thrive in cities, reliable and fast connectivity is critical for both remote and local workers. But only providing adequate connectivity could make those places simple zoom-towns.
Despite new technologies, in-person interactions may be essential for some positions or facilitate higher added value tasks (e.g., co-designing)1516, so providing spaces where national and international talent, experts and future generations discuss and exchange ideas and establish collaborations is essential. A third crucial component is education, so promoting institutions and research centers constitute a central piece in the productive development. In fact, teaching coding or computer programming are careers (sometimes no longer than one year) that allow people to experience upward social mobility.
The BA Digital Nomads program is an initiative of the CBA to attract and host global talent working in the knowledge sector. These workers could expand and consolidate the existing innovative ecosystem, and also demand goods and services, thus leveraging the previously mentioned sectors (such as tourism and hospitality), among others.
15 While some workers decided to move to remote locations (in the case of Argentina, some software workers relocated to Sierra de la Ventana, Tandil or Bariloche), others looking to have their own green parcel, moved to the suburbs, that is, ‘further but not too far’. 16 However, companies such as Quora or BaseCamp have permanently transitioned to remote work and do not have any physical office location. One of the interviewed software companies based in Argentina has gone through an adaptation process and also migrated to fully remote. However, this kind of program may not necessarily harness the full potential of this ecosystem, and may even create some negative externalities. Although bringing talented and wealthy workers contributes to boosting the urban GDP by underpinning consumption in the internal market, it does not necessarily contribute to investment and exports17. One possible course of action that I will propose to offset this shortcoming is for local authorities to implement complementary policies to turn that influx of talent into a higher number of investment projects, and thus have a greater impact on local GDP. Furthermore, as suggested, investments in R+D+I along with effective education policies are necessary to improve productivity and competitiveness rates. Digital nomads could play a key role by participating in, for instance, innovation and education initiatives such as hackathons and open software fests.
Concerning the second point, this program may have considerable social and spatial implications. In the absence of inclusive policies, there may be risks of commodification of the residential sector (and public spaces), turning already consolidated neighborhoods into more exclusive areas, or accelerating gentrification in the up-and- coming zones and endangering the existing urban heritage. Policies aimed at mitigating unintended consequences and control the burden of tourism are necessary in order to preserve the existing neighborhoods and ensure that local residents will not be at risk of displacement.
17 While economic policies such as the monetary and exchange rate policies are out of the local government’s scope, there are other programs such as incentives or tax breaks that can contribute to leverage private investment and exports. Thus, cities can be lands of economic and social development. But this would be possible only if, first, partnerships with education and research institutions are established to incentivize the R+D+I. Second, effective policies such as housing and land regulations are enforced. Otherwise, cities run the risk to only attract digital nomads as long-term tourists or continue reproducing the expulsion, segregation and gentrification dynamics that have occurred up to today, and in view of this scenario, social mobility would be endangered1819.
This research aims to understand the main barriers and enablers that may affect the positioning of the CBA as a receiving city and to identify potential conflicts of interest among the main stakeholders. Moreover, I seek to analyze the economic, spatial and social benefits and challenges, with a focus on the Parque Patricios Technological
District. While the pros and cons of teleworking for both firms and workers have been extensively researched, evidence about the implications for governments, specifically at the local level, seems to be scarce. I also propose some policy recommendations in order to follow the principles of inclusivity, safety, resilience, sustainability20 and livability.
This thesis is structured as follows. The literature review presents the origins and implications of the concepts of teleworking and telemigration, creative class, digital
18 While workers could easily commute or afford a place in the city, the most vulnerable communities would continue being displaced and excluded 19 The pandemic has sparked off an intense debate on effectiveness of remote teaching compared with face-to-face classes. Without unequivocal evidence, in-person education appears to a large number of students, particularly in the elementary and high school level. 20 Aligned with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and specifically as stated by the Sustainable Development Goal 11. nomads and the theories of location preferences. The first chapter defines the concept of the global office and explores the main actors participating in this virtual space and how both sending and receiving cities may be affected by the expansion of teleworking. The second chapter presents the specific characteristics of Buenos Aires with the goal of assessing if the city could show opportunities for telemigration, and whether telemigration may represent an opportunity for the city. In this context, I discuss the main barriers and enablers for teleworking to happen. Finally, I present the initiative BA Digital Nomads launched by Buenos Aires' government in December
2020 with the aim of attracting remote workers. The third chapter analyzes the potential economic, spatial, and social implications that telemigration can have on Buenos Aires in terms of employment (both high and low-skilled workers) and local economic development, and the effects on the short-term rental market. The fourth chapter provides a series of recommendations to capitalize on the potential benefits of teleworking and mitigate some of its unintended consequences. Finally, in the conclusions, I summarize all these points and provide some reflections.
LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter summarizes the literature and central concepts that motivated and guided this thesis. First, the origins and rise of teleworking and the contemporary notion of telemigration. Second, the different theories about location decisions. Third, the so- called creative class and the three T's for economic development. Finally, the category of digital nomads and what aspects define this group.
Teleworking and Telemigration
In the mid-70s, the physicist Jack M. Nilles referred to the concept of "telecommuting" for the very first time, stating that this modality "has computational and telecommunications components which enable employees of large organizations to work in offices close to (but generally not in) their homes, rather than commute long distances to a central office" (Nilles 1975, 1143). The author pointed out that due to the nature of the work performed by employees in the information industry, their tasks
(especially the clerical or middle management) could be adapted to telecommunication modes. He finally concluded that telecommunications-augmented decentralization meant an alternative to the patterns of the organizational and urban structure of those days. Since then, the literature has reflected on the multiple interrelations between remote work and aspects such as the individual, social, organizational, economic, labor, legal, health, environmental, and urban. Reviewing all of them exceeds the purpose of this thesis, so I will mention just a few of them. Scholars analyzed the implications of teleworking on work and work-life balance (Hill et al. 2006; Morganson et al. 2010).
Researchers also studied the effects on urban planning, specifically in terms of energy consumption, reduction of traffic congestion, and air pollution (Handy and Mokhtarian
1995; Hook et al. 2020). However, the effects of teleworking on international labor organization and its implications on local economic development have not been extensively discussed.
The American economist Richard Baldwin coined the term "telemigration" to denote how digital technology can enable corporations to remotely hire employees and compete for cheaper international salaries, which "in the United States and Europe are typically a dozen times what they are in developing nations" (Baldwin 2019, 116).
Essentially, these differences in labor costs would motivate companies to substitute part of the high-cost domestic workers with low-cost foreign workers (Baldwin 2019).
From the workers' perspective, teleworking allows professionals to offer their services to firms and clients regardless of whether they are based locally or globally. Hence, teleworking creates a global competition for talent because "Talented people are a global factor of production, able to choose among economically vibrant and attractive regions the world over" (Florida 2005b, 143). Baldwin also explained that through the use of AI and instant machine translation, language barriers would be dissolved, and any well-trained and high-skilled telemigrant worker would be able to participate in the global market labor. The author concluded that "telemigration, or international telecommuting, is win-win for the companies and the freelancer" (Baldwin 2019, 118) because while the former reduce costs, the latter earns more than what s/he could receive locally21. However, the author points out that telemigration can have a negative impact on the companies based in the same place where the hiring firm is located22 because they would have less work.
Baldwin pays particular attention to the matchmaking platforms such as Upwork,
TaskRabbit, Fiverr, Craigslist, Guru, Mechanical Turk, PeoplePerHour, and
Freelancer.com. Hiring companies (both big and small) are not only saving money.
Firms can access a larger pool of talent, and thanks to the matchmaking platforms, HR activities such as finding, hiring, managing, paying, and firing are easier. "By radically lowering the cost of hiring foreign service workers, freelance platforms are allowing companies to exploit international wage differences. The result will surely be an explosion in telemigration" (Baldwin 2019, 122). In fact, Baldwin considers that "it is very likely that other emerging markets will set up their own matchmaking platforms to help their citizens join the world of international freelancing. It would be an excellent way for them to create jobs for their rapidly expanding workforces" (Baldwin 2019,
122).
21 I consider this win-win situation presents some potential drawbacks that I discuss in chapter 2. 22 In this thesis, these places will be referred as “sending cities”, that is, the places that send the work to the “receiving cities”. Location determinants and preferences
There are different theories regarding locational determinants and preferences.
Musterd and Gritsai (2010) have recognized five different theoretical frameworks. First, the path-dependence theory, that is, deep-structural factors and pathways followed by cities. As the authors explain, this approach is embedded in the field of evolutionary economic and evolutionary economic geography. The trajectories and economic development paths taken for the past 100, 200, or 500 years have shaped the evolution of cities.
The second approach is called the 'classic' location theory that is based on hard conditions. Among these conditions, the authors refer to "the availability of capital and of a labor force with the requisite skills, an institutional context with the right set of regulations and sufficiently attractive tax regimes, the right infrastructure and good accessibility, but also availability and affordability of (office) spaces," and in less developed regions, subsidies and/or tax abatements (Musterd and Gritsai 2010, 9).
The role of educational facilities, and in particular high-quality public schools and universities, guarantees the availability of highly skilled workers and attracts companies to those places (Musterd and Gritsai 2010).
The agglomeration economies of the cluster theory (Porter 1995; 1998) is another factor: "activities are assumed to cluster because they have linkages to each other, use the same public and private services and institutions and are connected to the same environment, while profiting from each other's presence" (Musterd and Gritsai 2010,
11). A fourth theory defined by the authors is personal networks, that is, "the impact of personal ties, local relations and organisational affiliations" (Musterd and Gritsai 2010,
13). Social and personal relations play a critical factor, so individuals decide where to stay and settle based on the proximity to family or friends, but also consider the place of birth or study, which include the university milieu.
Finally, the 'soft' conditions theory focuses on the concentration of urban amenities that attract "people who are key to the most promising economic activities for the economic development of the urban region [including] 'amenities', such as the quality of life, urban atmospheres, housing market situations, levels of tolerance, openness and the diversity of the population" (Musterd and Gritsai 2010, 13). The authors refer to 'soft' conditions because there is a lot of subjectivity involved in these decisions, so politicians and city managers can interpret them in a flexible manner.
Aligned with the last theory, Edward Glaeser (2011) emphasized the decision of people to live in cities so they can appreciate and enjoy those urban amenities. "The increased demand for city living has also driven the rise in reverse commuting. People who live in one place and work somewhere else are showing their appreciation of the amenities, or low housing costs, of their hometown. We know that New York doesn't have low housing costs, but there is an increasingly large number of people who live in the city and work outside it (…) The fact that more people will pay high urban prices and work somewhere else is further evidence that big-city amenities have become increasingly valuable" (Glaeser 2011, 131-132). In fact, the young population is "moving to larger cities, either within their country or other countries, in search of better job opportunities and livelihoods but also of the urban amenities, diversity and consumption patterns of our increasingly urban-centered representations of culture" (Montero and Chapple
2019, 5).
Without considering that one theory prevails over the others, remote workers' decisions may be affected by one or all of them. Liu, Silva and Wang (2015) analyze the factors that define the in-city location of the creative workers, showing that rising rents in the downtowns pushed these workers to live in the lofts or the old factories, progressively configuring a new lifestyle. So, the authors conclude that the factors involved in these locational decisions combine the "hard" and "soft" conditions mentioned above. Thus, workers would consider "hard" factors such as the cost of living (including the cost of housing but also "soft" aspects, often referred to as amenities, that affect the quality of life). Among these aspects, one can consider the accessibility (often assessed by the proximity and frequency of public transport), the availability of cultural venues such as cinemas, theatres, and museums, the nearness to open spaces and green areas, and other recreational places.
However, cities are not only a cluster of amenities. In fact, there are also subjective factors that play a role when people choose a location: "The value judgment underlying their residence location decision is not primarily economic efficiency but also some other aspects, such as architectural style and mental satisfaction" (Liu, Silva and Wang
2015, 21).
The creative class
Many of the "telemigrable" workers fall under the so-called "creative class" defined by
Richard Florida, that is, the kind of workers that "share a common ethos that values creativity, individuality, difference, and merit [and] are paid to use their mind – the full scope of their cognitive and social skills" (Florida 2012, 9). Florida subdivided the creative class into two groups: the super-creative core and creative professionals. The professionals included in the first category perform creative activities directly; this category comprises scientists, engineers, actors, designers, poets, novelists, artists, entertainers, actors, designers, and architects but also "the thought leadership of modern society: notification writers, editors, cultural figures, think-tank researchers, analysts and other opinion makers" (Florida 2005a, 34). The second group has a significant creative component in their work, including "those who work in a wide range of knowledge-intensive industries such as high-tech sectors, financial services, the legal and healthcare professions and business management" (Florida 2005a, 34).
Florida refers to the three T's of economic development (technology, talent, and tolerance) and says that a nation or region needs to be successful on the three of them in order to spur innovation and economic growth – in his own words, there is an interdependence of these 3 T's; a place that often lacks one of them, fail to grow.
The first T (Technology) is necessary for a country or region to achieve economic success: places with "strong innovation capacity and strong high-tech industrial sectors enjoy a considerable advantage in generating new commercial products, new wealth, and new jobs while sustaining their growth" (Florida 2005b, 138). Talent is mobile and tends to cluster. The creative class share "the view that the labor market for their skills and services operates on a global scale [so] they search for work locations across borders, and will go to places that offer abundant economic opportunity, exciting cultural and social environments, world-class amenities, and the freedom to be themselves and realize their dreams" (Florida 2005b, 145-146). As these skilled workers move to attractive areas, they also "provide the new ideas that fuel the local economy. Smart, entrepreneurial people are the ultimate source of a city's economic power, and as those people become more prosperous, they care more about quality of life" (Glaeser 2011, 132). Thus, an increasing number of countries target their efforts to retain the existing talent and attract more through several initiatives, special work permits, tax benefits, and also repatriation programs (Florida
2005b).
Finally, tolerance is essential when considering a region or nation's ability to lure and mobilize talent. Florida refers to this tolerance as 'openness to people' that "enables places to compete more effectively for talent from other countries and also to more effectively mobilize and harness its own talent across race, ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation, and class position" (Florida 2005b, 149-150). Florida cited Pascal
Zachary, who argued that "openness to immigration is the cornerstone of innovation and economic growth" (Florida 2005a, 40). The notion of tolerance, closely tied to diversity, is also presented as another amenity because "urban consumers are attracted to cities with ethnic restaurants, international cultural offering, and a lively street scene"
(Glaeser, Kolko and Saiz 2000, 21).
Digital Nomads
While 'digital nomad' may sound like a buzzword these days, this concept started appearing by the end of the 20th century (Makimoto and Manners 1997) to denote those who could have a nomadic lifestyle thanks to the use of telecommunication technologies. Researchers have conceived digital nomads as young, borderless, and primarily self-employed remote workers who decided to get rid of the 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. shackles to travel, explore and interact with places in a different way than a tourist does but without necessarily reaching the status of resident (Hart 2015; Spinks 2015).
Digital nomads can be conceived as a community of workers who share four characteristics (see Figure 1). First, they perform "digital work" because it precisely allows them to have a nomadic lifestyle, that is, being constantly traveling around the world. Second, they rely on gig work because they can have short-term contracts and greater independence and flexibility, so they work on demand. "The combination of gig and digital work creates the opportunity of working online freelance jobs that can be completed using digital platforms and technologies remotely and untethered from specific locations" (Nash et al. 2018, 210). Third, they have a nomadic work, so instead of "relying on the stable office environment provided by an organization" (Nash et al.
2018, 211), they are in permanent movement from country to country but also from workspace to workspace. Finally, digital nomads have a less clear distinction between work and life; the frontiers are fuzzier because they choose to travel and work simultaneously. "Unlike tourists, digital nomads work continually while traveling and must therefore constantly balance their travel and professional productivity. Conflation of perpetual travel and work imposes non-trivial challenges; productivity for digital nomads is a critical issue that many deal with on a daily basis because of their constant state of 'workation'" (Nash et al. 2018, 213).
Figure 1. Digital nomads at the confluence of four concepts.
Source: Nash et al. 2018.
RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY
In order to identify the main enablers and barriers, as well as the economic, spatial, and social implications, this thesis used a mixed-methods approach.
Interviews
Interviews were conducted with 14 representatives from the Federal Government,
Federal Congress, Municipality of Buenos Aires, private sector, trade union, and international and civil society organizations. The number of interviews was distributed as follows: one interview was carried out with the Federal Ministry of Productive
Development, one with the Congress' Labor Commission, five with representatives from the municipality of Buenos Aires, one with a representative from WeWork, one from HITCowork, two from the Chamber of the Argentine Industry of Software (CESSI), one from the trade union Unión Informática, one with a consultant for Unesco, and one from the Observatory of the Right to the City (Observatorio del Derecho a la Ciudad-
ODC).
Survey
In addition, an online survey was conducted in English and Spanish in order to learn about migrant’s personal preferences, expenditures, and their opinion and assessment of urban services and other aspects of their experience in the CBA. The respondents had to meet the three following criteria: 1. being a visitor (either from another country or national jurisdiction different from the City of Buenos Aires); 2. performing remote work and/or study; and 3. staying in the City at the moment of responding to the survey.
The survey was structured into three sections. The first section sought to collect socioeconomic, educational, cultural, occupational and demographic data, and to understand other critical aspects (such as where people pay their taxes and their legal status); the second section focused on learning about the reasons why the respondents chose CBA and also different aspects of their lives (e.g., where they live, where they work, etc.); the last section asked the respondents to assess different aspects of life in the city such as urban amenities (i.e., transport, green areas, or internet connectivity), culture and diversity, urban landscape, cost of living, safety, and ease of receiving visas and opening a business, among others.
Cartographic analysis
The described qualitative approach was complemented with spatial analysis. Most of the data used were collected from BA Data, the City of Buenos Aire's open data site.
This portal was released as part of the national Open Government strategy, and currently has 391 datasets provided by 31 organizations, in formats that include .csv,
.geoCSV, .shp, geojson, etc.
The shapefile on Airbnb listings was extracted from Insider Airbnb23. The shapefile on co-working spaces was built in three stages: first, I obtained existing .kmz files from
Google Maps, and complemented them with additional .csv files of my own creation; second, I merged the different databases; third, I cleaned up the resulting data; finally,
I complemented the mapped co-working spaces with others I georeferenced. To analyze the distribution of Airbnb listings and digital nomads’ location, I used the kernel density tool to calculate the density of point features in the CBA. Then, I displayed the co-working spaces to identify the most consolidated areas.
23 Available at http://insideairbnb.com/get-the-data.html
CHAPTER 1: THE GLOBAL OFFICE
Two hundred years ago, Karl Marx affirmed that capitalism sows the seeds of its own destruction. Today, the same land that has hosted the companies responsible for the most impactful digital innovations in recent years is facing a dismantling process (often referred to as the tech exodus24). Silicon Valley and its surrounding areas have been fertile ground for revolutionary tech giants such as Apple, Facebook, Google,
Microsoft, and, more recently, Zoom. These five companies have developed devices and platforms that have contributed to a tremendous increase in connectivity, not only for social but also work purposes. All such innovations enhance the way people interact, produce, and exchange ideas today.
The boom and expansion of tech companies in this part of the world have caused a rise in real estate prices, making housing affordability a severe issue25. Tech workers' salaries are far above the median household income, which has given way to exclusive
(and exclusionary) residential areas, expelling the working and middle classes and
24 A Telstra Ventures’ report published in May 2021 counterbalanced this argument by showing that 96.9% of startups stayed in the Bay Area during 2020. See full report at https://telstraventures.com/wp- content/uploads/2020/12/Telstra-Ventures_Final_Data-Report_March-2021-1.pdf 25 Although rent prices have dropped in San Francisco, they remain the most expensive in the United States – the one-bedroom median rent is $2,600, which is significantly above the California’s median of $1,768. See https://www.zumper.com/blog/san-francisco-bay-area-metro-report/ transforming the urban spirit of a city with a rich history and strong identity like San
Francisco (Stehlin 2016; Moskowitz 2017). But this crisis of housing affordability can also be conceived as a mismatch between the real estate and labor market, or in a simpler way, housing prices have grown more than salaries.
Covid-19 has brought many unavoidable changes and resulting innovations.
Undoubtedly, the world of labor has had to adopt new ways of production and be more flexible26. Whether these changes will be permanent or not does not seem to have an unequivocal answer yet. However, these changes are already impacting on cities.
During 2020, an extensive debate took place in terms of the future of downtowns and office areas and how that would affect housing prices, mobility, or public spaces. Many companies have gone through substantial restructuring processes and teleworking was considered among the options to reduce costs. In fact, Facebook released a job ad to hire its first Director of Remote Work (Hartmans 2020) and, more recently, with the support of a Dublin-based recruiter, Zoom has started hiring workers in Ireland
(Keane 2021). The same sector that propelled the rise of housing prices in the San
Francisco Bay area, has begun seeking to hire in places where the cost of living is cheaper.
26 The Covid-19 crisis has created a natural lab to accelerate and test the nature of remote work. While there is still a great extent of uncertainty about whether these changes will be reverted or remain after the end of the pandemic, one thing is clear: teleworking is not for everyone. Many employees still need to commute and attend their workplaces, which creates a problem of equity. Concretely, teleworking is more feasible for workers within the white-collar industry and, specifically, more educated workers are more likely to have access to and take advantage of this option (Bartik et al. 2020). Living here, working there
As explained in the literature review, Richard Baldwin coined the term "telemigration" to show how digital technology can enable corporations to tap into a larger labor pool of talent and compete for cheaper salaries by hiring remote employees worldwide.
That global digital labor market is what I will refer to here as the “global office”.
The graph displayed below shows the salary gaps across nations. For instance, an accountant based in China earns about one-twentieth of the salary of an accountant in the United States. "The Chinese accountant would be unable to do all, or even most, of a US accountant's job, but at twenty times cheaper, there are some tasks the Chinese accountant could take over from high-priced US accountants. With help provided by the Chinese assistants to US accountants, US firms could get through the work stack with fewer locals" (Baldwin 2019, 117). Baldwin also explains how the use of new technologies such as artificial intelligence and instant machine translation can help workers overcome linguistic barriers, so that any well-trained and high-skilled telemigrant worker should be able to participate in a foreign labor market.
Graph 1. Income gaps across nations.
Source: Baldwin, 2019.
Governments, real estate developers, and urban residents, among other relevant actors, have conceived the city as the physical place where living, working, and playing converge. However, the rise of teleworking is making it possible to decouple these three components. In other words, teleworking is allowing us to telecommute every day to what could be conceived as the global office.
The concept of telemigration thus seems to imply a shift from the "Live, Work, and Play" paradigm in planning. In this sense, it is reasonable to argue that telemigration could overcome this mismatch between housing prices and salaries by decoupling the real estate and labor markets, leading to the quite different mantra "Stay locally, work globally".
In this context, cities seem to be no longer competing to lure the next Amazon's HQ2, but workers instead. Notably, local governments from what I call in this work "receiving cities" have designed targeted programs and provided incentives to attract remote workers.
Figure 2. Initiatives to attract digital nomads.
Source: adapted from City of Buenos Aires’ BA Digital Nomads. Available at https://www.infobae.com/sociedad/2020/12/22/con-beneficios-para-quienes-se-anoten-la- cuidad-lanzo-el-proyecto-nomades-digitales-para-atraer-trabajadores-remotos/
In the United States, Tulsa, Oklahoma launched the program Tulsa Remote, that grants
$10,000 to digital nomads who move there and stay for at least one year. The program does not only provide cash incentives but also "provides amenities like co-working spaces and a connection to a thriving (and growing) domestic ex-pat community"
(Holder 2020). With Tulsa as the pioneer, other American cities and areas such as
Vermont, northwest Alabama and Topeka, Kansas are experimenting with similar initiatives27. However, despite the fact that living costs are lower than in Silicon Valley, all of these cities pay and charge in U.S. dollars.
The real estate to wage gap can be wider if one considers cities located outside the
United States. Concerned about the decrease of visitors, the nation of Georgia launched Remotely from Georgia, a program aimed at offering remote working visas and attracting freelancers, entrepreneurs, and full-time employees. To qualify for the visa, applicants have to meet specific requirements, which include showing proof of income of at least $2,000 per month, proof of travel insurance for at least six months, etc. In this way, the government of Georgia seeks to ensure that applicants will positively contribute to the local economic development (Wilson 2020).
With many European cities declining in population, several countries in this region have launched initiatives to attract remote workers. Portugal, for one, has implemented
Rural Move, a platform that connects companies, local municipalities and workers so they can relocate to rural areas considered "remote ready", which means they have an adequate infrastructure, including coworking spaces, high-speed Internet connectivity, among other services. In the context of Brexit, Portugal has become particularly
27 See Holder, Sarah. 2020. “The Great Tulsa Remote Worker Experience”. Bloomberg.Com, February 28, 2020. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-02-28/the-great-tulsa-remote-worker- experiment attractive for Britons but also for other non-EU residents who can obtain a golden visa
- or a startup visa in the case of tech entrepreneurs.
Taking a closer look at such programs, it is particularly interesting to ask these two questions about their hosts: what particular conditions these places have, and what kinds of policies their governments implement. In the case of Portugal, certainly their warm cities – especially those like Lisbon that have access to the beach – with a cheap cost of living may be a good incentive for digital nomads. However, places being attractive in terms of lifestyle is not necessarily a sufficient condition. Taxes often is a big concern. In fact, Lisbon has implemented a reform and now it has startup-friendly taxes (Butcher 2021).
Sending and receiving cities
Baldwin points out that telemigration, which could be imagined as international telecommuting, is a win-win for both the companies and freelancers (Baldwin 2019).
While there are some benefits for companies28 and freelancers, I also identify some drawbacks.
In the case of companies, telemigration has allowed them to tap into a larger global labor pool of talent. Simultaneously, firms can cut their expenses significantly not only by reducing their office space and necessary equipment but also by hiring in places
28 Probably the overall winners are the platforms that act as virtual labor markets and facilitate the connection between hirers and freelancers because, after the development of these virtual environments, they have just raised revenues. where salaries are cheaper and for whom they are not mandated to make tax contributions as for their salaried workers. Within this arrangement, companies can also avoid potential legal issues and costs resulting from, for instance, firing employees.
Regarding freelancers, the benefits may be overshadowed by some disadvantages.
While they can benefit from higher revenues than other workers within the same industry working for employers in the local market, these freelancers are exposed to a great extent of vulnerability. They often lack job stability, do not have social or retirement benefits, unemployment insurance, sick leave, paid holidays, are not unionized or represented, must provide their own resources to produce (e.g., notebooks, software, etc.), among other disadvantages.
Furthermore, for the purpose of this thesis, it is critical to analyze the benefits and challenges that telemigration may bring to governments, especially at the local level.
This shift of workers from high-income to mid- and low-income regions may create new opportunities for the municipalities where those workers are living and working, but may also lead to fiscal and economic issues for the wealthiest cities.
Essentially, the mismatch between the labor and real estate market is making either secondary cities in leading countries or leading cities in secondary countries attractive29. In this way, the mismatch between cost of living and salaries could be now
29 As expressed by Jennifer Bonnet, the Savannah Economic Development Authority’s vice-presidents of innovation and entrepreneurship, some workers who decided to relocate in Savannah are “being paid by a company elsewhere, typically a fairly large salary, and able to buy a house in our region”. See https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-23/cities-are-looking-to-lure-newly-remote- workers resolved by relocating employees or hiring workers that would do the same work at a cheaper salary – and potentially, without the same labor protections.
In the sending cities (that is, cities where workers are emigrating) such as San
Francisco, telemigration may negatively impact the local economy, at least in the short term, by affecting aspects such as consumption of goods and services, fiscal revenues and unemployment rates30. It is tempting to rush to conclude that if sending cities experience the above challenges associated with telemigration, receiving cities must necessarily be on the receiving end of all of its rewards. However, the reality is much more complex than that.
Indeed, in the receiving cities (as is the case of the CBA), we can confidently identify a number of benefits. As a result of the influx of workers whose income is significantly above the national or local median household income, one would expect to see an expansion of local consumption, causing a boost to the urban GDP. Simultaneously, fiscal revenues (such as VAT and gross income31) should be higher and underemployment rates should be lower, particularly among the youngest groups.
30 While the technification of many labor-intensive activities had a negative impact on low-skilled workers, telemigration could adversely affect white-collars, especially those living in industrialized countries. This substitution might be more common in areas such as software development or design, but even traditional face-to-face jobs such as mental health (betterhelp.com is a private online counseling platform) or diagnostics (e.g., telediagnosis have been a regular practice in which medical doctors read, for instance, X-ray and other images online). 31 In Argentina, VAT is collected by the federal government and gross income by local administrations. In the case of the City of Buenos Aires, gross income represents approximately 70% of total municipal fiscal revenues. Since the last publication of the City’s fiscal revenue on the official portal was in June 2015, this 70% results from estimating the average of gross income over total revenues for the published period -between January 1997 and June 2015. Nonetheless, there are some drawbacks. First, telemigration represents a virtual brain drain – professionals remain physically present in the city but they work for companies based overseas. Furthermore, most of the time, this work is not formally registered, so governments deal with higher rates of job informality, which has an impact on fiscal revenues and exports (since this work is not registered, national account systems could not consider it as service exports). Finally, telemigration may create some distortions in the local labor market: workers could prefer to work for international companies to the detriment of local ones, causing a shortage in local labor supply.
Diagram 1. The Global Office.
Source: own elaboration.
The categories of telemigrant, digital nomad and relocated worker
In alignment with the concept of telemigration as defined by Baldwin, I differentiate three types of workers: telemigrant, who remains in their city of residence but works for overseas locations, digital nomad, and relocated worker – the last two who probably continue working globally but migrate to places where, for instance, the cost of living is cheaper.
Telemigrants are those workers who have mostly lived in developing countries and could benefit from producing and offering services for a foreign company, by perceiving an increase in their income. As of today, most telemigrants have a differential skill with respect to their colleagues: they speak English. But as Baldwin points out, the upcoming technologies could dissolve language barriers and make speaking foreign languages unnecessary. Thus, any well-trained and high-skilled telemigrant could participate in the global digital labor market in the near future.
Unlike the first category, the following two categories (digital nomad and relocated worker) physically migrate to a new place. An example could be a software developer working in a tech company in Silicon Valley who was offered to be relocated. While this worker could opt to move to a cheaper city within the United States (for instance,
Savannah, Georgia), that same person would probably benefit to a greater extent if decided to relocate to a city in a developing country.
In the literature review section, I presented theories about the factors, not necessarily mutually exclusive, that affect location selection for these workers. To continue with our example, the first reason could be, as mentioned above, that the cost of living in, for instance, Mexico City is lower than in Tulsa and, of course, even lower than in Palo
Alto32. A second reason for residents, and specifically creative workers, is the number of urban amenities available in destination cities. The third motivation could be to gain new experiences or provide them for their families; for instance, someone would be willing to move to Mexico City (at least, for a short or mid-period of time) to raise their kids in a Spanish-speaking country where services such as childcare or education are often cheaper.
Figure 3. Word cloud of digital nomads’ reasons to migrate.
Source: SurveyCafé 2020.
32 The worker may decide to maximize her/his disposable income or spend the same amount of money in housing but living in a better place (e.g., a bigger or nicer apartment).
The second category is digital nomads, who often stay longer than 90 days (so they are not tourists) but less than one year (so they cannot be considered permanent residents). Digital nomads may not necessarily come from a sending city and, in the long run, they could become relocated workers. Most digital nomads are freelancers, entrepreneurs, or teleworkers. According to a survey published by StorageCafé, 70% of them have a college degree or higher. In terms of age distribution, 65% are between
20 and 34 years old (29% are between 35 and 41 and 6%, between 42 and 55%).
Regarding their occupations, almost 50% work in the business service, IT, or marketing sectors.
Figure 4. Top occupations for digital nomads.
Source: SurveyCafé 2020.
The third category refers to what I call relocated workers: those workers who were formerly performing their activities in the main leading centers of research, creativity, and innovation, primarily located in developed nations. These workers then move to another city permanently or temporarily. While there is no consensus, one could say that a digital nomad who stays longer than 365 days could be considered a relocated worker. This distinction is particularly relevant because depending on the legislation of each country, when a relocated worker exceeds a certain number of days, s/he will start paying his/her taxes in another jurisdiction.
CHAPTER 2: TELEWORKING IN BUENOS AIRES: A RECEIVING CITY?
The first section of this chapter intends to assess the potential of the City of Buenos as a receiving city by analyzing the enablers and barriers at both the national and local levels. The second section of this chapter discusses the preferences, priorities, and perceptions of digital nomads when it comes to choosing a destination city, based on outside sources and the results of the survey I implemented for this research. Finally, the third section presents the initiative BA Digital Nomads, a program launched by the city’s General and Foreign Affairs Secretariat in December 2020. BA Digital Nomads intends to promote and facilitate the welcoming and smooth adjustment of digital nomads who arrive in the City.
An autonomous city in a federal country
Prior to diving into the specific characteristics of Buenos Aires, it is essential to note that despite the Argentine federal system and the resulting autonomy of the City of
Buenos Aires33, the local government’s leeway is limited by national regulations that
33 The City obtained this autonomy after the Constitutional reform in 1994, which sought to promote a higher decentralization. The Argentine Constitution’s article 129 establishes that “The City of Buenos Aires shall have an autonomous system of government, with its own legislative and jurisdictional may at times affect local conditions. Examples of such regulations are those relative to foreign currency exchange, which intend to control and stabilize the exchange rate market and thus, the macroeconomic performance. As I will present in the section on
Foreign Exchange Controls, some of these regulations may paradoxically lead to certain externalities that would contribute to the City’s initiative to lure remote workers.
Could Buenos Aires be an opportunity for teleworking?
In terms of enablers, Buenos Aires has a high-skilled labor pool, competitive salaries, a good educational level, an innovation ecosystem, and a culturally rich and diverse milieu. Among the barriers, there are fiscal regulations, labor policies, and foreign exchange controls that may hinder teleworking from thriving in the city.
Before presenting the different enablers and barriers, we can take a look at some city rankings to have an overview of how the city performs in general terms. According to the Global Liveability Index published every year by the Economist Intelligence Unit, the City of Buenos Aires was ranked in the 61st position from a total of 140 cities. This
Index comprises 30 qualitative and quantitative factors in the following five dimensions: Stability, Healthcare, Culture and Environment, Education, and
Infrastructure. The City of Buenos Aires received a score of 82.4 - above the average of
powers, and a head of government who shall be elected directly by the people of the City”. Finally, the autonomy was formalized in the City’s Constitution approved in 1996. Latin America, which equaled 68.2 -, standing out in the dimensions of Education and
Culture.
However, the Global Cities Index may be even more pertinent to the purpose of this thesis because this index analyzes business activity, human capital, information exchange, cultural experience and political commitment. Andrés Mendoza Peña, a partner at ATKearney, said that the index “analyzes these five aspects because they are key to help a city create, attract and retain people, capital and ideas”34. From a total of
151 cities, the city performed even better after being ranked in the 25th position and occupied the top position in Latin America (Kearney, 2020).
Like the Economist Intelligence Unit’s index, Buenos Aires stands out in human capital and cultural experience. The city was ranked in the 11th position in the human capital dimension due to its number of inhabitants with higher education degrees, the academic performance of its universities and the educational approach of secondary schools. Concerning its cultural life, in addition to theaters and bookstores, the publication points to museums, cinemas, sports and music shows, as well as the culinary offer, all aspects that attract visitors from the entire world35.
34 Sánchez, Nora. 2016. “Ranking global de ciudades: Buenos Aires está en el top 25.” November 19, 2016. https://www.clarin.com/ciudades/ranking-global-ciudades-buenos-aires_0_S1O36cQ-l.html. 35 See “Por su capital humano, Buenos Aires está entre las 25 mejores ciudades del mundo.” 2020. Argencon (blog). June 29, 2020. https://www.argencon.org/por-su-capital-humano-buenos-aires-est- entre-las-25-mejores-ciudades-del-mundo/. Enablers
The City of Buenos Aires combines various characteristics that could make it appealing for telemigrants, digital nomads, and remote workers. Among such benefits, the interviewees referred to the current foreign exchange rate, which makes the cost of living very low, the weather, citizen security, the IT infrastructure, the health system, the cultural offer, the nightlife, and the time zone. The local government authorities also mentioned that there is already an established community of digital nomads, which is another critical factor because they tend to seek places where such communities are established.
Human talent and labor costs
Buenos Aires has an important high-skilled labor pool36. Regarding competitiveness, the successive and intensifying devaluations of the Argentine peso since 2018 have significantly reduced labor costs in relation to foreign markets, so it is reasonable to expect that a larger number of international companies start tapping into the local market talent. Even though this could represent a good opportunity for telemigrants, the successive devaluations of the Argentine peso have significantly affected the purchasing power parity of the households and created distortions in the labor market.
These distortions are prevalent in the software industry – in which workers can easily
36 The Permanent Survey of Households (Encuesta Permanente de Hogares-EPH) by the IVQ 2019 revealed that 32.3% of the total city’s population has completed higher education. telemigrate – and are further aggravated by the existence of several parallel foreign exchange rates.
Graph 2. Evolution of purchasing power parity of the salary in the formal private sector (in “blue” dollars37) – 2000-202038.
Source: IERAL. https://eleconomista.com.ar/2020-08-el-salario-real-esta-en-su-menor-nivel- en-18-anos/
Argentina can be part of a global co-working system39 due to low costs and the vast pool of talented professionals, pointed out a high-level representative of WeWork. A
37 The gap between the official and blue dollar reached 150% in the second semester of 2020, when the currency hit AR$195. In April 2021, the gap was around 45%. 38 For 2020, only the first semester was considered. 39 In June 2020, WeWork launched AllAccess, a global membership that connects all co-working spaces globally. Essentially, AllAccess allows any member to enter any building worldwide, scaling up the coworking from the neighborhood to the global level. manager at HIT Coworking said that because of the low entry costs, some companies that did not have a hub in Argentina decided to open an office to look for local talent; one concrete example was the case of a Brazilian gaming company that opened offices in Buenos Aires to recruit local talent.
Education and the innovative ecosystem
According to The Economist Intelligence Unit’s ranking (the Global Liveability Index),
Buenos Aires’ score equaled 100, the same as Boston, Paris, and London. Fernando
Straface, the City’s General and Foreign Affairs Secretary, explained that the tendency is increasing because the City has a good and accessible education offer40.
Most of the interviewees brought up the quality, affordability, and accessibility of education as a key enabler, presenting the public higher education system as a primary driver of progress and social mobility. In the opinion of a high representative from the
Chamber of the Argentine Software Industry (Cámara de la Industria Argentina del
Software-CESSI), public education has allowed Argentina to foster a critical mass of professionals that distinguishes Argentina within Latin America and enables it to participate in global projects as other countries do. From the 8 or 7 Latin-American companies that entered Wall Street over the past 15 years, 5 are from Argentina.
Nowadays, postgraduate education is a factor that attracts workers. Education is very
40 2018. “Buenos Aires es la mejor ciudad de Latinoamérica para vivir, según The Economist.” August 15, 2018. https://www.clarin.com/ciudades/buenos-aires-mejor-ciudad-mundo-vivir- economist_0_SJD8_gGLX.html. affordable, so professionals, mostly from Latin America, Spain and France, move to
Argentina to study, then join the workforce and stay as permanent residents.
In particular, Argentina can be an excellent destination for foreign programmers because "they can find an ecosystem of companies, academia, colleagues (…) similarly to what they could find in other hubs for premium class software development". The country has been fertile soil for several unicorns and companies developing world- class products; for instance, Oracle developed two products in the country: Mulesoft - now owned by SalesForce- and Fogosoft, the VPN used by Oracle.
While companies export digital products, there were some criticisms posed by CESSI authorities. Argentine companies have developed solutions for foreign governments
(such as the Canadian or Puerto Rican) but the Argentine state does not hire national companies.
Diversity and Culture
Buenos Aires has a diverse population and a very rich cultural life. With around 13% of its population being foreign-born, the city is known for its inclusivity and openness. The
City has received different immigration waves that nourished both the social and urban fabric.
The collective imaginary often portrays Buenos Aires as almost exclusively conformed by Italian and Spanish immigrants who escaped from political and economic hardships in their countries of origin in the late 19th and early 20th century. However, the City (and other parts of Argentina) has been a welcoming land for several other communities, such as the Armenian, German, Polish, Russian, Syrian, Lebanese, Korean, Japanese,
Chinese, among others. This blend of cultures has been translated into the creation of cultural and social clubs and a wide and diverse gastronomic offer (e.g., restaurants serving Eastern Basque food or a fusion of Argentine barbecue with Southeast Asian).
In addition to its rich cultural life, arts scene, and diversity, the City has combined different architectural expressions. Mostly influenced by the French Academicism and the Italianate style, Buenos Aires is a synonym of architectural eclecticism as it also combines the Spanish Colonial, Art Deco, Art Nouveau, Neogothic, French Borbonic,
Neoplateresco, among other expressions. This blend of buildings has given a distinctive identity to the "barrios porteños" (Buenos Aires' neighborhoods), many of them integrated with parks, squares, and boulevards41.
The city also "retains high levels of cultural participation, a great deal of independent cultural activity, and a history that embraces freedom of both expression and being in public spaces" (BOP 2018). Buenos Aires has also been positioned as one of the 10 global top destinations for the LGBTQIA+ community after receiving the British LGBT
Award42 – Argentina was also one of the first countries that recognized the same-sex marriage, which was approved by the federal Congress in 2010. One expression of the
41 Even though Buenos Aires has well-designed parks and green areas, the unfair distribution and access to them has been a growing concern. Nowadays, many civil society organizations and neighborhood communities are claiming for more and better green areas, especially in the southeastern corridor of the city. 42 See https://es.travel2latam.com/nota/49500-buenos-aires-among-the-10-best-lgbt-destinations-in- the-world extent of integration of the LGBTQIA+ community is that, unlike many other large cities43, Buenos Aires does not have a specific quartier where the community is concentrated.
With 374 theatres, the city is considered as a global capital of independent theatre;
Straface mentioned that after London, Buenos Aires has the highest number of theaters44 and also hosts the Colón Theater, one of the top ten opera houses in the world. In addition, the city has the largest number of bookstores per inhabitant
(Freeman 2015), including El Ateneo Grand Splendid, recently featured by National
Geographic as the world’s most beautiful bookstore (Howard 2019).
43 As Chueca in Madrid or the Pink Zone (Zona Rosa) in Mexico City. 44 2018. “Buenos Aires es la mejor ciudad de Latinoamérica para vivir, según The Economist.” August 15, 2018. https://www.clarin.com/ciudades/buenos-aires-mejor-ciudad-mundo-vivir- economist_0_SJD8_gGLX.html.
Figure 5. El Ateneo Grand Splendid.
Photo credit: m4caque’s photostream
Barriers
There are some barriers that may interfere with the expansion and consolidation of telemigration in the City, affecting the opportunities for companies and workers (digital nomads, remote workers, and telemigrants). Among these barriers, interviewees mentioned fiscal and foreign exchange regulations, the specific conditions of the software labor market, and the visa programs. I added to this list the geographic location as another potential barrier.
Fiscal regulations
A CESSI representative expressed during an interview that although Argentina may not represent a great opportunity for foreign investors at this moment, it is certainly interesting for digital nomads. However, new policies are needed to attract them; for instance, they pointed out that programmers who migrate to Spain do not pay income taxes for the first two years, thus incentivizing professionals to come work in the country.45
However, CESSI authorities explain that the pandemic has triggered transborder teleworking and the number of professionals that work for overseas companies (either through platforms or directly hired by the company) has increased, and this leads to a situation of unfair competition, as those companies do not have financial responsibilities in the country, such as paying taxes for these employees. Contractors are often paid through Paypal, cryptocurrencies, digital wallets, etc.46, so none of those activities are formally registered, negatively impacting not only exports but also fiscal revenues.
45 One of the interviewees referred to a Spanish law that had the name of a soccer player. In order to confirm the tax break regime that seeks to incentivize programmers to migrate to Spain, I found the “Beckham Law”. This law, which has changed several times, currently does not provide a fiscal exemption for two years. However, in order to attract talent, professionals pay a flat rate of 24% of their income up to €600,000 per year. Once they surpass that threshold, the tax rate is 45%. 46 Workers have strong incentives to work for overseas companies because they earn in U.S. dollars and, as a consequence of the exchange rate spread, they can maximize their revenues by exchanging their income (or part of it) in the parallel market at a higher rate. Foreign exchange controls
The Argentinian federal government has imposed a series of measures over the years as a way to try to control the flight of capital. One such measure is the control of the exchange rate market (currently, citizens are allowed to buy up to $200 per month), which has led to the emergence of a parallel exchange market, which has created a gap between the official and the parallel dollar (often called the “blue dollar”). From
CESSI, the interviewees explained that the exchange rate spread47 represents an additional barrier because there is an incentive to work for overseas companies (see below Labor market conditions).
Another measure that has been adopted is limiting the repatriation of multinational companies’ profits. One representative from WeWork identified these regulations as possibly preventing companies from making new investments in the country. Thus, companies may be disincentivized to open service centers (outsourcing) because repatriating utilities is complicated. In light of this restriction, telemigration could be a good way for them to continue tapping into the Argentine talent without investing in office space or establishing a relation of dependence with its employees (and thus be subject to the national labor legislation), while also circumventing the currency regulations. In other words, companies seek to employ local labor without mobilizing
47 This exchange rate spread refers to the difference between the official and the unofficial (often called “blue”) exchange rate. As of April 2021, the former was around AR$98.25 and the latter was AR$144, so the spread was around 46.5%. capital; however, this situation limits the development of national companies within the knowledge economy sector, as well as the growth of its exports.
Although it was not mentioned by the interviewees, import restrictions can be considered as another barrier, especially considering it affects essential devices such as laptops. According to a report published by Linio, an e-commerce portal, Argentina is the second most expensive country to buy laptops. Several factors explain why notebooks are more expensive in this country than others, including trade tariffs, taxes, the gap between the official and parallel exchange rates, logistics, and the cost of the fleet to Argentina. However, in 2020 the online purchases of notebooks experienced a growth of 400%48.
Labor market conditions
Argentina is currently facing a severe shortage of labor supply in the software industry.
While the official estimates say that the country is in need of approximately 5,000 workers (the same number provided by the Federal Ministry of Productive
Development), the actual number could be around 10,000 (according to Unión
Industrial-UI) or even between 30,000 and 40,000 (as CESSI affirmed).
48 “Crece el uso de notebooks en Argentina a pesar de ser de las más caras en la región - Infotechnology.com.” n.d. Accessed May 3, 2021. . The talent and labor costs are creating a sort of virtual brain drain49. Firms state there is a “parallel market” of professionals that quit their jobs to start working remotely and as independent contractors for overseas companies – an employee can make
AR$150,000 (~$1,000) per month, but if s/he decides to telemigrate, revenues can rise to around AR$300,000 (~$2,000). This drain is exacerbating the local shortage of labor, which is also identified as one of the causes for the fall in exports; in fact, the exports of the knowledge economy sector have been decreasing for the past 10 quarters
(Barragán 2021).
Faced with this scenario, companies try to retain their talent by offering additional benefits such as paid vacations, health insurance for the entire family group, bonuses, etc. When adding all these benefits, a freelancer could earn approximately $2,300, so s/he receives AR$150,000 during the year. However, companies make a point of highlighting that salaried work also guarantees more intangible, but no less critical, benefits as career development, training, and job security (Barragán 2021).
As stated by UI, the greatest priority for a software developer is having access to professional training, and being able to develop their career. Also, they mention that younger people may be more inclined to work for overseas companies, while for those
49 As explained in Chapter 1, despite the virtual drain, these workers consume local goods and services. However, one of the major concerns could be that they also demand public services but do not pay all the taxes (e.g., income taxes). One of the interviewees mentioned that companies are often paying a small part of the salary in Argentine pesos (generally between the 10 and 20%) and the rest is paid overseas. over 30 years old and above and thinking of settling down, aspects such as job security become more important.
Visa programs
The General and Foreign Affairs Secretariat’s authorities emphasize how critical it is that the visa processing be quick and easy. Hence, the local government is working with the National Migration Direction to issue a special work visa with a streamlined granting process so digital nomads can stay and work in the city.
The National Migration Direction is working on a nationwide visa program. Digital nomads will have to apply electronically and pay a fee, whose cost is still under discussion. This visa will provide the worker a permit of residence for 90 days, renewable for another 90 days. However, the local authorities are concerned that it would virtually grant the same benefits that any other tourist visa, rather than a more extended residence period. They argue that Argentina should offer visas that allow remote workers to stay for longer periods that better suit the needs of these workers, as other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have done. For instance, Mexico offers a temporary residency that allows remote workers to stay for one year, with the possibility of renewing up to a maximum of three years. This Mexican visa does not grant a work permit and applicants must demonstrate having earned $27,000 in the last year or $1,620 per month within the last six months. Similarly, in the Caribbean region, Barbados and Bermuda implemented visa programs with short processing periods, granting temporary worker visas that are valid for at least one year (GCBA
2020).
Geographic location
Although interviewees did not refer to the geographic location of Buenos Aires as a factor, one could think of it as a potential drawback, especially for workers whose dependents (e.g., elderly relatives) stay in their countries of origin. Despite the fact that all recent technologies have contributed to the transition towards a more connected world, place still matters. Thinking in the context of Latin America, one could imagine the fact that another vibrant urban agglomeration as Mexico City, which is closer to the leading global centers of innovation, could create more opportunities. Concretely, a company could have higher incentives to hire telemigrants living in Mexico because they can travel to New York City or Silicon Valley at a cheaper cost. Conversely, relocated workers (people formerly living in Silicon Valley), could be offered to be moved to Mexico City for the same reasons.
Digital Nomads’ priorities and perceptions
I used primary and secondary sources to understand the digital nomads’ preferences and perceptions of the CBA. The website Nomad List ranked the City in the 9th position.
The different indicators are displayed in Figure 6, and the specific pros and cons of
Buenos Aires as perceived by digital nomads are reflected in Figure 7.
Figure 6. Perceptions of digital nomads.
Source: Nomad List 2021 (https://nomadlist.com/buenos-aires)
Figure 7. Pros and cons of Buenos Aires identified by digital nomads. Source: Nomad List 2021 (https://nomadlist.com/pros-cons/buenos-aires).
Similarly, a survey conducted by StorageCafé asked digital nomads to assess different categories (displayed in Figure 8) of several destinations for teleworking. While in this survey, the City of Buenos Aires was not the best ranked in the region, it earned the
15th position.
Figure 8. Top destination for digital nomads.
Source: StorageCafé 2021.
Survey Results
With the aim of refining the picture of digital nomads’ perceptions and learning about the experience of those digital nomads and other remote workers currently living in
Buenos Aires, I conducted an online survey (the full questionnaire can be found in
Appendix B). The 46.83% of respondents were between 30 and 39 years old, followed by the group between 20 and 29 years old (29.79%). 72.34% described themselves as female, 23.4% as male, and 4.26% considered themselves within another category or preferred not to respond. In terms of the level of education, 46.81% completed a bachelor’s degree,
14.89% pursued some years of graduate education but did not finish, and 23.40% had a master’s degree. A third had 1-5 years’ experience, another third had between 6 and
10 years, and 20% between 10 to 20. Regarding the type of employment, 30.36% worked for a company, 21.43% worked as a freelancer, 23.21% were self-employed or independent, 7.14% run their own startup, and 5.35% worked for a startup. While
46.34% worked for a company based in Argentina, the rest did not: 31.7% worked for a company based overseas (within this group, 54% and 38% were working for a company based in the United States and Europe, respectively).
42.86% of respondents have been in Buenos Aires for at least the past 5 years, 16.67% arrived between 3 and 5 years ago, 26.19% between 1 and 3, and 14.28% arrived the last year. One of the questions asked them to evaluate 23 aspects of the CBA.
Respondents generally manifested they were extremely or somewhat satisfied with the following aspects: Gastronomic offer and Public Transport and Walkability (91%),
Proximity to parks and other green areas and Freedom of speech (86%), and Urban and architectural heritage (81%). 77% also said they were extremely or somewhat satisfied with the city’s Cultural life and Entertainment, Nightlife, and Multiculturality and diversity. Respondents said that they were somewhat or extremely dissatisfied with Affordable housing and Safety (36%), Cost of living (31%), Opportunities to start a business (27%), and Tech hub and innovative ecosystem (22%).
Regarding connectivity, the BA WiFi (the local public wireless network) received a score of 5.38/10 and the private internet connectivity -including mobile data, cable or optical fiber, satellite, etc. – had a better score (7.55/10).
“BA Nómades Digitales” (BA Digital Nomads)
With the tourism sector hardly hit by the pandemic, the city of Buenos Aires has launched the initiative BA Digital Nomads (Nómades Digitales BA, in Spanish) to attract international workers who opt for long stays. Government officials expressed that reactivating the City partly implies recovering the visitor economy because Buenos
Aires highly depends on activities such as tourism, hospitality, and transport. Thus, the local government and national authorities are working to issue a special visa so digital nomads can work for a maximum of one year.
So far, BA Digital Nomads, which is run by the General and Foreign Affairs Secretariat, offers a Welcome Kit consisting of a SIM card, a SUBE card (the local transit pass), and discount rates for transport, lodging, and co-working spaces. In addition, the city of
Buenos Aires is working with the federal government to provide a special one-year visa to temporary workers.
Figure 9. Welcome Kit on the BA Digital Nomads Portal.
Source: BA Digital Nomads Portal. https://baglobal.buenosaires.gob.ar/nomades- digitales.php
Prior to launching BA Digital Nomads, the City had other programs under the Strategy for International Projection of the City that seeks to position the city as a place to work, do business and live. These programs are StudyBA, aimed at attracting international students, VisitBA, with a particular focus on conventions and LGBTQIA+ tourists, or
InvestBA, whose main purpose is attracting investors. The General and Foreign Affairs
Secretariat authorities agreed that the pandemic -and the subsequent expansion of teleworking- has facilitated the operationalization of what they call LiveBA, which has been the most challenging policy.
Essentially, LiveBA intends to position the City as a place where visitors stay for longer periods of time. The expansion of teleworking appeared as a window of opportunity to launch BA Digital Nomads. With international flights still below regular levels and intermittent border closures, the goal is to attract students and digital nomads to study, work, and live. As already mentioned, Buenos Aires has gained a lot of ground in the region, and the local government now wants to position the CBA as the best urban destination for living in Latin America. The government aims to receive 22,000 digital nomads by 2023 and expects this influx to generate approximately 140 million dollars
(Jara, 2020).
CHAPTER 3: WHAT COULD BE THE IMPLICATIONS OF TELEWORKING
FOR BUENOS AIRES?
This section aims to reflect on the potential economic, spatial, and social implications of attracting and retaining digital nomads and other remote workers in the City of
Buenos Aires.
Economic implications
Effects on the urban GDP
The BA Digital Nomads program could represent an additional revenue source for the local government. Local authorities estimate that each digital nomad spends approximately $6,300 per visit, which is 56% more than other international visitors do.
The municipality estimated that the City received 8,00050 digital nomads in 2019.
Based on that number and as part of the 2021-2023 Commitments51 -under the
50 This estimate, which was based on the total number of tourists who stayed longer than 90 days and whose country of origin was European or American, helped the authorities build a baseline. 51 These are concrete publicly-stated goals from the city’s government for a given time period, which are classified in different dimensions. See the CBA’s Commitments: https://www.buenosaires.gob.ar/compromisos dimension Employment and Support to Strategic Sectors-, the municipality set the goal of attracting 22,000 digital nomads by 2023, which would add up to $138.6 million.
However, it is important to note that the notion of “stay” can be vaguely understood because it is not defined in terms of days. To refine the analysis, I estimated that the digital nomad’s monthly expenditure is approximately $800, which gives a total of
$9,600 per year5253.
In order to project the yearly growth rate of the number of digital nomads coming to the city, I used the growth rate of tourists between 2005 and 2019 as a reference. First,
I calculated the delta between 2019/2005 = 1.421573. Then I calculated the growth rate as follows:
14√1.421573 = 1.025444
Considering the number of digital nomads of 22,000 as the baseline, and expecting this figure to increase by 2.54% every year, we can estimate that the City could receive
29,742 digital nomads by 2035, which would represent US$285.5 million (see the graph below).
52 This is collected from Digital Nomad List and the number is based on the foreign exchange rate, which has seen high fluctuations over the past months. 53 The interviewees mentioned that tourists often exchange currency in the parallel market, so the exchange rate I considered was $1=AR$142. Graph 3. Estimates for growth of digital nomads and potential revenues.
Source: own estimates.
Since digital nomads are believed to exchange US dollars in the parallel market, it is noteworthy that their expenditure will be translated into an expansion of consumption
(in AR$) but will not contribute to a growth in the Central Bank’s reserves.
Fiscal revenues
While fiscal outcomes are hard to estimate, I briefly analyze the positive and negative effects that teleworking could have on fiscal revenues. BA Digital Nomads could increase tax revenues such as the VAT54 (collected by the federal government) and
54 The Argentina VAT rate (Impuesto al Valor Agregado-IVA) is 21%. indirectly contribute to gross income taxes55, which are the taxes paid by businesses such as bars and restaurants.
Concerning income taxes (non-applicable to digital nomads), some telemigrants, who are permanent residents, try to avoid or evade these taxes. One of the interviewees mentioned that companies are often paying a small part of the salary in Argentine pesos (generally between 10 and 20%) and the rest is paid through other channels, so that telemigrants do not have to convert the full amount of their income at the official exchange rate, which is significantly lower than the parallel or “blue dollar”.
However, there is a regulation by the Central Bank that mandates that all those who export services56 must exchange the foreign currency in which the payment was made into Argentine pesos within five days after receiving payment. As described in the previous sections, some workers opt for using payment methods such as PayPal accounts. However, these accounts are not regulated by the Central Bank; people who apply these kinds of strategies may end up facing a summary proceeding on foreign exchange criminal behavior 57, which could result in fines, suspensions to operate in the foreign exchange market or even prison (Terrile, 2020).
55 In the City of Buenos Aires, the general percentage of gross income (Ingresos Brutos-IIBB) is 3%. 56 The only persons excluded from this disposition are expatriate employees and diplomats. 57 The original legal term in the Argentine legislation is “sumario cambiario abierto”. Spatial implications
Office space
As mentioned before, the outset of Covid-19 has fostered more flexible labor regimes.
The phenomenon of telemigration is turning some of the former IT and software employees into independent contractors, who will continue working from their homes, coffee stores or co-working spaces. In fact, 85% of the remote workers who responded to the survey said they worked from their homes58.
All interviewees agreed that flexibility (in terms of schedule, workplace, contracts, etc.) will remain after the pandemic is over. Most of the interviewees mentioned that the 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. model is over and there has been an organizational transformation (and especially, a clients’ mindset shift) in which everyone’s focus is now one of results- oriented performance.
As has occurred in many other cities over the past year, some of the main urban centralities of Buenos Aires are tangibly emptier. With a modest growth of 6,250 sq meters, the office vacancy rate in the last quarter of 2020 was 12.2%. According to
CBRE (an agency of real estate services), this rate has been the highest registered since the national economic crisis of 2002. CRBE also showed that the rent of A and A+ classes had a negative variation of 1.9% compared with the previous quarter (Álvarez
2021).
58 It is useful to clarify that the number of Covid-19 active cases saw a sharp increase in March 2021, and new restrictions were imposed by the federal government at that point. These two factors may have affected the respondents’ answers. Airbnbfication
The tendency towards short-term rentals on well-known platforms (such as Airbnb), but also via other channels, including Facebook, Instagram, and those offered by local real estate brokers, has grown significantly over the past decade. While Airbnb may not necessarily be the platform that long-term residents use, the term Airbnbfication is often used to refer to the expansion of short-term rentals (sometimes offered to long- term renters).
The law on rent approved last year established that long-term rentals should span at least 3 years. The exception was for furnished rooms for touristic, leisure, or similar purposes. However, the legislation determined that if the contract term or the consecutive contracts exceeds the 3 months, there is a presumption that rent was not offered for touristic, leisure or similar purposes. According to Defensoría del Pueblo de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires (the City's ombudsman), in the City of Buenos Aires, the touristic rental supply surpasses the regular rental market, which is not a national tendency. Concretely, the number of Airbnb listings exceeded the number of long- term rentals for residential purposes (19,000 vs. 15,000). Considering short-term rental are approximately 20% more expensive than long-term listings, this could lead to some price distortions and put more pressure on prices, creating additional incentives for owners to list their units in the temporary rental market and turning the real estate market into an upward spiral of constant price increases (Defensoría del Pueblo de la
Ciudad de Buenos Aires 2020). As a way to better understand where the Airbnbfication is occurring and where it can expand to in the future, I calculated the kernel density of the current 20,243 Airbnb listings. I also mapped 61 co-working spaces, which are in demand by remote workers.
As we observe on the map below, these co-working spaces are mostly concentrated in the northern corridor but some of them have started to emerge in the south of the city, specifically in Parque Patricios.
Map 1. Concentration of Airbnb units and co-working spaces in the CBA.
Source: created by the author based on own and InsideAirbnb’s data.
Some of these neighborhoods are visibly transforming as a result of this phenomenon.
In the neighborhood of Palermo, residential buildings built in the past few years have oriented part of their offer (if not all), towards short-term rentals. Some of these units are very similar to hotel rooms (often equipped with a kitchen or kitchenette) and have a cleaning service. Access to these kinds of buildings involves a passcode, and padlocks that store the units’ keys can be placed either outside (inside a general box) or in the lobby.
Figure 10. The progressive expansion of Airbnbuildings on 5700 Soler st., Palermo.
Source: Google Maps.
The local government's authorities express that the digital nomads probably reside in the same areas where most of the tourists often stay, that is, in the neighborhoods of
Retiro, Recoleta, Palermo, and San Telmo. In terms of the specific accommodation arrangements and costs, the survey showed that 63% of the respondents stay in a long- term rental unit and 14% of them in an Airbnb. The distribution of their monthly accommodation costs59 varies: 20% expressed they paid less than $299 per month,
35% between $300 and $499, 5% between $700 and $999 and around the upper quintile between $1,000 and $2,000. As pointed out by the GCBA, the majority is located in the northeastern corridor of the City.
Graph 4. Monthly housing rents: digital nomads and other remote workers.
Source: own elaboration.
59 20% of the respondents preferred not to say how much they pay.
Map 2. Location of digital nomads in the CBA (April 2021).
Source: created by the author based on own data.
Social implications
Housing affordability
The Airbnbfication phenomenon carries with it risks in terms of housing affordability, which may result in gentrification and subsequent displacement. In particular, expanding the number of permanent visitors could represent a threat to renters in the regular market. This is especially true for a city as CBA with a permanent housing deficit and where the growing valuation of properties has increasingly exacerbated the income gap, making access to adequate housing harder (Granero 2019).
The average price of the square meter had constantly increased between 2002 and
2014, when the average price was $2,320.5. The affordability crisis had expanded the number of renters (from 22 to 29% between 2001 and 201060, which is often referred to as the inquilinización process) and led to a reduction in the number of property owners - from 68 to 56%) (CEyS 2015; ACIJ 2016). As Levy Yeyati expresses, affordability is all the more critical when one considers how difficult it is to access a mortgage loan, as a consequence of the urban agglomeration but also inflation (Levy
Yeyati 2021).
Urban heritage
The pressure exerted by development often impacts on residents but also heritage.
The decision of including urban heritage as a social implication is precisely to warn about the commodification of heritage and emphasize that, besides an economic, heritage also has sociocultural values that “are at the traditional core of conservation - values attached to an object, building, or place because it holds meaning for people or social groups due to its age, beauty, artistry, or association with a significant person or event or (otherwise) contributes to processes of cultural affiliation” (Mason 2002,
60 This data is based on the census, which was not performed in 2020 due to the pandemic. 11). As the author clarifies, the historical, cultural/symbolic, social, spiritual/religious, and aesthetic values overlap.
As presented in the enablers, Buenos Aires is the result of a cosmopolitan configuration that has been materialized in its heritage, creating a distinctive identity in each neighborhood. An increasing demand for housing could put additional pressure not only on traditionally consolidated neighborhoods (e.g., Recoleta or Palermo) but also on up-and-coming neighborhoods (such as La Boca, Barracas, and Parque Patricios), areas in which different civil society organizations such as Basta de Demoler and the
ODC have presented their concerns about the heritage preservation.
One of the representatives of the ODC mentioned that the reform of the urban building code allowed neglecting the heritage. Developers do not comply with the approved six heights61 and houses are being demolished.
61 This NUC establishes new maximum heights of construction. Thus, under Title 6 Buildability Norms, the 6.1. Classification of Units of Buildability eliminates the previous heights and defines six new ones, as follows (maximum height in parenthesis): High Corridors (38 meters), Medium Corridors (31.2), Units of High-Rise Sustainability (22.8), Units of Mid-Rise Sustainability (22.8), and Units of Low-Rise Sustainability (11.2). Figure 11. Six heights approved in the NUC.
Source: GCBA Subsecretaría de Planeamiento, 2019.
Even more, the New Urban Code (NUC)62 follows a completion morphology -that is, that all buildings on the same block “complete” the approved height, also known as the “even law” (ley de enrase) -, promoting higher buildings and densification. Basta de Demoler’s representatives have expressed that even though one house can have any kind of protection, their adjacent pieces could not be and end up being demolished.
Although the NUC intended to regulate where towers can be built, the ODC mentioned that the “surprise towers” continue being approved. They said that all these exceptions are allowed as a result of a new tool called “urban agreements” (convenios
62 In 2018, the Government of the City of Buenos Aires (GCBA) approved the law 6099 to implement a new urban code (NUC). urbanísticos), defined by the GCBA as “… a tool of urban management that formalized the agreement and set commitments between actors from the public and private sector to make (…) urban interventions that create mutual benefits in the City”63.
However, from the organization expressed that these agreements between the local government and a private developer (critically conceived as tailor-made laws) require the latter to make on-site (often a small park) and pecuniary contributions and then is allowed to violate the existing code. They said there were several permits of demolition in which one house ended up being surrounded by higher buildings and deprived of air and sunlight.
From the Secretariat of Urban Development expressed that the NUC avoids complex calculations that interfere with the development of projects. The NUC does no longer use the tangent calculation (i.e., maximum height in relation to the street width) and changes the previous requirements for the Land Occupation Factor (LOF) and Total
Occupation Factor (TOF). With this update, the LOF only sets a maximum and the TOF
“will only be applicable in those specific areas, as follows: Special Facilities, Areas of
Historic Protection, and Determined Urbanizations” (GCBA Subsecretaría de
Planeamiento 2019, 34).
The regulation of maximum heights is a necessary but not sufficient condition. The elimination of LOF, TOF, and tangent calculation increases the developers’ discretion, who now only face the constraint of maximum heights in most areas. This discretion
63 GCBA. Convocatoria a Convenios Urbanísticos. Nueva herramienta para seguir desarrollando la Ciudad. See https://www.buenosaires.gob.ar/sites/gcaba/files/ccu_bases_y_condiciones_0.pdf can be problematic because increasing buildability does not necessarily achieve the
GCBA’s goals per se64. Real estate agents tend to invest more in well-consolidated areas where land value is higher, overlapping with neighborhoods that concentrate a large number of historic buildings.
The “morphology of completion” may overlook there is an existing city. The proposed buildability norms can work adequately in the newest but not in the historic neighborhoods. The NUC considers uniformity of heights as an aesthetic criterion, but this may be in detriment to the preservation of heritage65.
Human capital
While the issue explained in this section is not strictly a direct implication of teleworking
(neither a consequence of the BA Digital Nomads program or other specific policies), some of the interviewees expressed their concern about the little attention that the municipality paid to promoting an innovative ecosystem, supporting small and mediums businesses, etc. Hence, I would like to address some aspects that lie at the
64 The GCBA expresses that the NUC seeks to: introduce fixed and homogeneous heights to create a more uniform architecture and landscape (experts define this criterion as a “morphology of completion” because it intends to complete vacant space between lots, so the city increases the extent of consolidation in each block); provide foreseeability and make the current regulations more transparent, accessible, and legible; adopt a human-scale design, prioritizing the non-motorized mobility and concentrating traffic on the main corridors, and; preserve historic buildings and the identity of each neighborhood. 65 Di Virgilio and Guevara mentioned that the local government implemented policies for heritage restoration, acting as a catalyzer of gentrification process, which is tied to a political orientation of the local government and its urban policies aligned with the conceptions of the neoliberal urbanism (2014). intersection of planning and human capital to lay the groundwork for the recommendations I will provide in the next chapter.
Adequate IT infrastructure and connectivity are critical factors for the remote workers I have been discussing. As presented earlier, private internet users assess their connectivity in the city 7.35 out of 10. With most of these people working from their homes, connectivity needs to be reliable, fast, secure, and affordable. But good infrastructure is key not only for today’s workers but also for future ones.
Even though there have been federal and local initiatives to improve connectivity (for instance, ConectarIgualdad and Sarmiento Plan distributed notebooks to students in public primary and high schools) and pedagogic education programs, there is still a lot of ground to cover. One interviewed Unesco consultant affirmed that there are disparities regarding the quality of connectivity among public schools in the CBA, and many families do not have access to connectivity in their homes, which is particularly critical when considering that people have been mostly studying remotely since the start of the pandemic.
Similarly, as was stated in the section on economic implications, digital nomads are only being conceived as consumers and tourists. However, digital nomads are a synonym of well-educated and talented people that should be more actively integrated into the City’s life, at least while they are living in the City.
Localizing these implications: the Parque Patricios Technological District
Since 2008, the GCBA has created a series of creative districts. The first one to be inaugurated was the TD, located in Parque Patricios, a laggard historic neighborhood in the south. Today, the TD has 200 acres. In it are included the new city hall, an iconic building designed by Norman Foster, which opened in 2014 along with other significant public infrastructure works such as the expansion of the H metro line, improvement of public space and green areas, among others urban amenities and facilities.
In order to attract businesses, the local government offered tax breaks in gross income since the district was launched. This initiative resulted in 306 companies that moved to the district and more than 11,000 new jobs in the software and computer services industry (over a total of 3,614 firms and 66,530 jobs in the CBA, according to 2018 data by the Ministry of Finance), which is considered a success for the Secretariat of Urban
Development. However, the TD has been particularly criticized for the costs of public investments that exceeded those of the private sector (Socoloff 2017) and the tax breaks, among other benefits, given to the companies.
In terms of the spatial implications, the neighborhood has changed in the past years, and these policies have promoted investments not only in office spaces but also in commercial and residential real estate. The offer of temporary room rentals and houses on Airbnb started in January 2012, when the neighborhood had already begun a process of urban renewal. Since 2015, the short-term rental offer has expanded, going from 20 to 43 units between 2017 and 2019, mostly for leisure and touristic purposes
(Lerena Rongvaux and Rodríguez 2019).
Map 3. Supply of Airbnb listings in Parque Patricios. October 12th, 2017.
Source: Lerena Rongvaux and Rodríguez 2019.
In the ODC’s view, the GCBA promotes urban development and, thus, raises the land value in the south of the city, without being concerned if these developments improve the quality of life for citizens. In fact, if the land value becomes more expensive, leasing costs will increase, leading renters, elderly populations but also some owners to a situation of higher vulnerability.
Map 4. Supply of Airbnb listings in Parque Patricios. May 4th, 2019.
Source: Lerena Rongvaux and Rodríguez 2019.
In May 2019, Airbnb prices ranged between $10 and $34 per night, and the average cost was $22. This price was above the average rental of a 2-bedroom apartment of
70m2 (753 sq ft), which was $470, that is, $15.60 per night. By comparing these values, one can clearly identify that the temporary rental market has become more affordable, which means that Airbnb (and other short-term rental offerings) could create tensions with the local rental market, affecting housing affordability for local residents (Lerena
Rongvaux and Rodríguez 2019). In the absence of mechanisms that prevent increasing prices in the real estate market, initiatives such as the BA Digital Nomads program could intensify these trends and result in a top-down gentrification process.
Map 5. Location of national and foreign companies in Parque Patricios TD.
Source: created by the author based on own and GCBA data.
Regarding the software industry, one software businessman, whose office is located in a 5-floor building in the TD, said that nowadays only between 15 and 30 employees go to the office every day; the rest of the staff works remotely. Another businessman within the same industry said that, at the beginning of the pandemic, they did not know if they were going to be able to move all productive processes remotely. This uncertainty had to do not only with technical issues but also with their clients’ resistance. However, they started the reconversion processes and were able to overcome these barriers. The company ended up completely migrating to a remote-first model and all tasks have been performed remotely for the past 6 months, without seeing any negative impacts to their business.
While all the interviewees agreed that the post-pandemic process will probably move towards a hybrid model, it is still too early to predict the future of Parque Patricios.
Everyone anticipates that office space will be reduced and workers might commute to the office twice or three times a week – and this requirement will vary depending on each worker’s tasks and needs. The 15-minute city model is in the local government’s plans. In fact, WeWork considers that its future development will be smaller co-working spaces (maybe 2 to 3 floors instead of the traditional business towers) spread out throughout the city, so workers can access any of them based on their daily schedules.
In terms of improving the ecosystem of innovation, there was an important omission66 that was the decision on not building a tech hub. Representatives from CESSI and UI pointed out that Parque Patricios is incomplete, as its main focus thus far has been on real estate development and valorization rather than fostering an innovative ecosystem through, for instance, building a tech hub. In other words, most of the initiatives to
66 Max Weber said of the action that “the acting individual attaches a subjective meaning to his behavior - be it overt or covert, omission or acquiescence” (Weber 1978 (1922), 4). promote the software industry have become real estate projects instead of necessary efforts to develop partnerships between industries, universities, and research centers.
One businessman said that unlike 22@ in Poblenou, Barcelona, the district does not have a technological and innovation hub that hosts and serves as a meeting point for startups and entrepreneurs. In her/his opinion, this hub should be a center of shared services (servers, cloud, etc.) to foster innovation67. Her/his understanding is that the local government decided not to create this shared service center because they think it would only serve small and medium businesses that will not grow. However, s/he considers creating an innovation hub is what would allow businesses to take off and grow, and in fact, these same businesses would continue being part of the Tech District in the long term.
67 This interviewee explained that Argentina cannot grow because of competition from the economies of scale that exist in China or India, so the key is innovation.
CHAPTER 4. POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS
Although I acknowledge some structural limitations, I propose a series of policy recommendations in order to address the implications and unintended consequences while also capitalizing on the opportunities that teleworking can bring to the City.
Economic implications
The BA Digital Nomads is a good initiative to stimulate the hardest-hit sectors during the pandemic, such as tourism and hospitality. This program might also reactivate the consumption of other goods and services. However, the local government – in coordination with national authorities – could complement this program with other initiatives that stimulate other components of the GDP, such as investment and exports.
Boost the innovative ecosystem
Even though digital nomads are thought to be mainly working for companies based overseas, attracting all this talent could contribute to boosting the innovative ecosystem. Expanding their stay in the city is a great opportunity to create new channels through which they can be more integrated with local initiatives. One way to achieve this could be to invite them to participate in the existing software festivals68, hackathons, startup contests, among other events, and promoting the creation of mixed teams (for instance, by assigning a higher score to those teams conformed by
Argentinians and foreigners when evaluating projects). Another way could be to disseminate project grants and credits to fund their projects. These digital nomads may have already implemented ideas in other contexts, so this access to funding can help them to localize those initiatives. Their international networks could represent an opportunity in yet other ways: since digital nomads are in contact with other companies and centers abroad, national projects could potentially be exported through the digital nomads’ networks.
In order to retain this talent and maintain the interpersonal relationships with digital nomads, these contests can set certain conditions such as requiring them to come back or continue being physically present in the City (for instance, requiring them to hold in- person meetings to explain the progress of their projects to the investors during the incubation period).
68 For instance, the Latin American Free Software Install Fest (Festival Latinoamericano de Software Libre-FLISOL) has been the biggest event for spreading free software since 2005. Create fiscal incentives
The foreign exchange rate spread and, to a certain extent, the fiscal elusion or evasion, respond to macrostructural problems. However, there are some policies that can be implemented.
From Argencon, an institution that gathers all the knowledge economy companies, say that one solution would be to bridge the foreign exchange rate spread or implement an exchange split69 (“desdoblamiento”), that is, allow companies to have a dual exchange rate. Another solution that has been suggested is to create a similar fiscal regime as the one appearing in Decree 23470, which seeks to promote investments for exports. Finally, this institution has proposed to increase the audit of work platforms so they must be registered and all the payments made through these channels are cleared out and taxed (Barragán, 2021).
In order to attract talent, this special fiscal regime could be implemented for companies but also individuals. Similarly to what Spain did, the federal government could reduce the fiscal contributions (for instance, by setting differential aliquots of the gross income tax71) paid by professionals in the software industry to retain native talent. Digital nomads could also be attracted and retained by a special fiscal regime.
69 These kinds of policies were implemented in the past and created problems because exporters did not declare the actual amount of what they exported. 70 See Decree 234/2021 “Régimen de Fomento de Inversión para las Exportaciones”. https://www.boletinoficial.gob.ar/detalleAviso/primera/242705/20210407 71 This policy would require an analysis of the tax incidence and the impact on the public accounts as well as understanding the workers’ elasticity so they have enough incentives to declare their gross income and pay taxes rather than continuing to incur in fiscal irregularities that could lead them to face a summary proceeding on foreign exchange criminal behavior. Even though there may be some concerns about data privacy and security, better coordination between financial and government agencies is needed to reduce tax evasion and elusion and achieve a higher level of transparency. Concretely, companies and telemigrants’ tax returns could be cross-validated with other public and private databases72.
Spatial recommendations
Office into housing
The office vacancy rate is a problem that can be turned into an opportunity. Some cities have already started converting offices and hotels into housing, generally as market- rate rentals.
One of the Secretariat of Urban Development’s representatives said that even though the downtown area has good infrastructure (particularly in terms of mobility) and amenities, they aim to provide additional facilities to promote the transition to a more residential area, targeting the offer to young (including digital nomads) and senior residents. This may be an excellent alternative to reduce the existing housing stock's underutilization and bring more livability to this area. The GCBA could run a pilot project for intergenerational co-living, as countries such as Japan73 and Holland have already implemented. In the following sub-section (Social Recommendations), I
72 As noted elsewhere in this work, some companies pay a part of the actual income (e.g., 20% of total income) and the rest is paid using other financial mechanisms to circumvent existing regulations. 73 In Japan, with the goal to bridge the generational gap, initiatives to connect young and senior volunteers have been around at least since 1970. provide some ideas that promote not only age-based but also socio-economic inclusion.
Regulations on short-term rentals
To prevent the phenomenon of Airbnbfication, the local regulation should explicitly forbid the construction of buildings (I call them Airbnbuildings) whose only goal is to provide short-term rental units. Airbnbfication is the most explicit expression of an action that causes displacement and segregation – and unlike hotels, these
Airbnbuildings almost do not create new jobs. In addition, just like units need authorization to be used for professional purposes, residential units should have a special permit to operate as Airbnb rentals. These permits should be approved only for family-owned properties in order to avoid super-landlords that own several residential units in one area, sometimes run by one or more property managers. While
Airbnb listings are accessible to everyone and the enforcement of these regulations should not be too complex74, ad hoc specifications should address the units offered on other platforms or by real estate agencies.
Social recommendations
More affordable options
As has been explained, Buenos Aires is going through a severe housing affordability crisis, and the share of renters has increased over the past years. The City has worked
74 The portal Inside Airbnb (insideairbnb.com) also shows the properties’ owners. on the urbanization of informal settlements but there have been no active policies that prevent displacement.
Anti-gentrification clauses have not proved to be necessarily effective because developers often move to other areas, resulting in a “displacement of displacement” phenomenon. To prevent future residential units from being market-based rate, the
GCBA could also run pilot projects of mixed-income housing75 in areas such as the downtown or Parque Patricios to serve at least two purposes. First, to provide affordable housing opportunities to low-income families in which there may be blue- collar members who perform in-person tasks76. The possibility of being well-connected and closer to the primary labor markets would reduce their commute time and, while the pandemic persists, their risk of exposure as well. Second, since the best schools, parks and other social infrastructure are also often located in these neighborhoods, mixed-income housing would promote the best opportunities for these families’ children to receive a better education and escape from the structural poverty in which they are nowadays trapped.
In practice, the promotion of mixed-income developments works as a cross- subsidization system that expands the affordable housing offer. However, this kind of innovations requires regulations that request developers to produce units of the same
75 For instance, in the Boston area, 13% of the units have to be affordable and there are different payment thresholds for residents based on the percent of the area median income (AMI). For instance, if someone earns 30% or less than the AMI, they pay less than someone who earns 60%. 76 As mentioned at the beginning, the difference between blue and white-collar work during the pandemic creates equity issues (Bartik et al., 2020). quality and size, distributed on different floors, same entrance for all residents, among other considerations that work to prevent discrimination.
Finally, in order to expand the housing supply, a more controversial or resisted policy would be taxing vacant properties, which would force owners to offer the vacant existing units in the City. However, this kind of regulation is often difficult to enforce.
Preserving our past, present, and future
Regarding urban heritage, the City should set more restrictive regulations in the new urban code (NUC). The NUC sets six maximum construction heights without considering the surrounding areas – although there is a mention to an assessment of adjacent parcels, 8-floor buildings continue being approved for construction next to historic houses. Valuable buildings should be considered comprehensively, that is, managed as a set of historic and related pieces and not case by case. Civil society organizations such as Basta de Demoler have started requesting to audit the sessions of the Commission of Heritage Issues (Comisión de Asuntos Patrimoniales, or CAP). In order to increase accountability and transparency, all these sessions should be live- streamed, as are the Congress’ debates.
But also facilitating new technologies to these civil society organizations could be another powerful tool: an open-source app could help citizens report any potential demolitions or violations of the code, and thus gather all these fragmented pieces of information in order to keep a record and create statistics on a real-time map (the map shown below, probably the first attempt to systematize all this information, was created circa 2010 and run by the organization Basta de Demoler). A monitoring and alert system could be integrated into this app so that key stakeholders and interested citizens receive mobile notifications every time a new infraction or endangered building is reported. Finally, users could post on social media and share it with the press77.
Map 6. Status of urban heritage.
References: Yellow (“Building at risk”); Red (“Building at imminent risk of demolition”); Blue (“Demolished building”); Green (“Demolished historic building”). Source: Basta de Demoler. https://bastadedemoler.org/sorin-la-gestion-de-macri-tiene-muy-poco-interes-por-lo- patrimonial-diario-registrado/
77 Currently, the protection of many historic buildings are protected by a writ of amparo (recurso de amparo), so they are exposed to a high vulnerability. In those cases where the preservation of heritage buildings is inviable and there are no potential buyers, the developer could split the unit into smaller ones while preserving the façade and following regulations in terms of the new materials. In fact, we find instances of restoration (and in some of them, subdivisions) in San Telmo and Palermo.
However, these are still isolated projects and operate at a market-based rate.
As mentioned in the previous subsection, another policy would be taxing vacant properties, dissuading owners from speculating on the deterioration and decay of buildings to sell them as parcels for future new developments.
Investing in our talent
While providing educational or pedagogic recommendations is out of the scope of this thesis78, there are some considerations policymakers should keep in mind. The City’s
Ministry of Education is in charge of the initial, primary, and secondary education. As mentioned by members of the software industry, existing policies such as the Integral
Plan for Digital Education (Plan Integral de Educación Digital-PIED) and other projects run by civil society organizations should be complemented with a reinforcement of critical areas such as mathematics and logic subjects. Without it, students will face barriers to succeed when they pursue higher education.
78 The evidence shows that the provision of adequate connectivity, software and equipment is a necessary step, but it does not guarantee students will maximize the potential of all these tools. Schools’ authorities should be able to lead all the processes involved in the adoption of ICTs so they work within an innovative pedagogic approach that makes these changes useful (Lugo 2011; Lugo 2016). But developing social infrastructure should be embedded in a more comprehensive strategy. It is key to improve the IT and connectivity infrastructure in both educational institutions and homes, particularly in areas farther from the main urban centralities. As stated by the GCBA during interviews, the 15-minute City is a project that authorities are already discussing with developers, chambers and other organizations, so providing adequate infrastructure in the entire city could reduce the demand pressure on the main urban centralities, avoiding congestion costs. Simultaneously, promoting the development of new areas could expand the offer of alternative housing that is more affordable and create new opportunities for mid- and small businesses, and also for both white and blue-collar workers.
Localizing the recommendation in Parque Patricios TD
As expressed by actors involved in the software development industry, Parque
Patricios is still missing a tech hub. Considering that “After 12 years of the creation [of the Technological District], the District has not reached the expected success, mainly because the district development did not have production and employment as key components” (Tenaglia 2021), the Head of the Commune 4 sent a draft bill to the
Buenos Aires City Legislature.
The project consists of converting the former prison (known as “cárcel de Caseros”) located in Parque Patricios into the Center for Technological and Productive
Development and Space for Memory. This center could be a way to foster the interaction of key stakeholders working in the knowledge-economy sector, promoting a productive ecosystem to create more jobs and opportunities in the area that faces the highest unemployment rate79, particularly among women and young people. Since this prison served as a detention and torture center during the repressive regime of the last dictatorship, the project also includes a Space for Memory to reflect on the most violent years of recent Argentine history.
Before providing some suggestions to the project, I would like to discuss the reasons why I have found this specific initiative too relevant. First, its location. The prison is three blocks away from the Parque Patricios Technological District’s boundaries. It is also in front of the new National Archives’ building inaugurated during Mauricio Macri’s administration.
The second reason is the history of the building. Following Jeremy Bentham’s panopticon principles, the prison was finished in 1877 and since then, it has probably experienced the most relevant political periods of Argentine history. The former president, Juan Domingo Perón, sent the political prisoners (like the communists) to the old part of the building. As mentioned, it was also used during Rafael Videla’s dictatorship.
Third, I focused on this building because it could represent an example of the conversion from a top-down to a bottom-up approach. The GCBA initially intended to relocate the ministry of Economy and Finances and the local IRS (Administración
Gubernamental de Ingresos Públicos-AGIP), continuing with the decentralization of public offices started in 2015. However, after political and economic conflicts between
79 In the south of the City, the unemployment rate is 14.5% (GCBA 2021). the national and the local government, the relocation of the Ministry became financially inviable. This conflict created a window of opportunity for this society-led initiative, which had support from different actors, including trade unions, chambers, businesses, grassroots movements, among others.
Aligned with the missions and functions specified in the proposed bill, my suggestion would be to create a public co-working space where professionals, investors, digital nomads, and students converge and exchange ideas for the future. In addition, to avert the risk of developing high-tech islands for only a well-connected global class, I would also suggest that the GCBA recover previous experiences under its administration80 and partner with a public university to open a technical school focused on IT and software development as a way to bring more opportunities to one of the most relegated areas of the City.
However, it is necessary to clarify that although this new building could constitute a model for a bottom-up and non-exclusionary urban development, all these initiatives should be embedded in a comprehensive policy framework that effectively incentivizes a greater extent of citizen participation and promotes an inclusive development process.
80 With the goal of bridging geographic barriers, there were other initiatives to create social infrastructure in vulnerable areas. Probably one of the most relevant was in 2014 when the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) opened a center right in front of the Villa 20, so students could take the introductory classes of the Common Basic Cycle (the one-year university admission course). Also, the UBA, which manages two of the most prestigious high-schools, opened a new high-school (Escuela Media Técnica de Villa Lugano) in Villa Lugano, one of the most vulnerable neighborhoods.
CONCLUSIONS
The Covid-19 pandemic has introduced drastic changes in the spatial configuration of cities and the way people work. Teleworking has created more time and space flexibility, and workers can migrate more easily and live their professional and personal lives in two different places. This dissociation has structured what I called the global office, in which companies compete in an international labor market for talented (and often cheaper) workers, while local governments compete to host them. Specifically, the number of telemigrants has grown in the City of Buenos Aires, and the local government launched the program BA Digital Nomads to attract this group of remote workers, simultaneously creating new opportunities and posing certain challenges.
Concretely, the presence of telemigrants and digital nomads can expand local consumption and have a positive effect on some fiscal revenues such as VAT and gross income taxes. Also, the attraction of digital nomads could be tantamount to having qualified and talented long-term visitors in the City, contributing to the local innovation ecosystem. Teleworking is also allowing native workers to stay in Buenos Aires while they work for overseas companies, but at the same time, this could be read as a virtual brain drain. Concerning the challenges, the existence of a parallel foreign exchange market may not contribute to increasing the exports of services, either through digital nomads’ expenditures or the payments received by them. In addition, the office vacancy rate has increased since the start of the pandemic, leaving many buildings empty in the urban centralities and other emerging neighborhoods as Parque Patricios. The arrival of digital nomads can increase the demand for long-term rentals, adding more pressure to the existing rental market. This is particularly problematic for two reasons.
First, it may continue pushing prices up in a context in which the number of tenants has grown over the past years and they are already dealing with financial hardship. Second, in the absence of more effective regulations and controls, the urban heritage is at serious risk of continuing to be affected.
Even though there are some macroeconomic structural limitations that are out of the local government’s scope, some policies and interventions could prevent unintended consequences and turn the challenges into innovative programs.
From the economic perspective, digital nomads should not be conceived as mere tourists but as temporary residents instead. That means including them in activities
(software festivals, hackathons, startup contests, etc.) and promoting programs that engage them to co-create and design with local workers and institutions. Also, creating a special fiscal regime for both companies and workers that level the field for the former and incentivize the declaration of gross income of the latter. In terms of spatial recommendations, the office vacancy rate is an opportunity for promoting more integration and diversity (e.g., inter-generational co-living) and offering well-equipped areas to new residents. Furthermore, new regulations are needed to control the activity of short and long-term rentals and protect small hosts against super-landlords and other predatory practices.
Regarding the social dimension, the GCBA could test pilot projects to promote mixed- income development aimed at addressing the issues of housing affordability and provide better conditions for low-income families. In terms of the urban heritage, it is necessary to make public decision processes more accountable and transparent.
Moreover, changes to the existing NUC are needed and additionally, the use of new technologies could get citizens involved in active monitoring and thus boost civil society organizations’ efforts. Finally, expanding the social and IT infrastructure would improve accessibility and provide more opportunities, especially to the youngest generations.
This thesis has reflected on the enablers and barriers that would allow and condition the expansion of teleworking and the consolidation of initiatives aimed at attracting digital nomads and other talented people. I have also reflected on the economic, social, and spatial implications, focusing on an emerging area as the Parque Patricios
Technological District. Finally, I provided some recommendations that seek to mitigate the negative externalities and channel the challenges into new opportunities. This work intends to serve as a starting point for reflecting on all these aspects and motivate the discussion and next steps (particularly for the post-pandemic era) among policy-makers, civil society organizations, companies, developers, and all the porteñes and visitors that enjoy this City. It is important to continue researching telemigration and digital nomadism in order to develop a more encompassing understanding of these processes (and their effects) that could help us design better policies to regulate the upcoming urban changes. It is my hope that these ideas help Buenos Aires and other receiving cities to continue growing into more inclusive, resilient, sustainable, and livable places.
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APPENDIX A
Questions asked during the in-depth interviews81.
Do you think that teleworking will persist after the pandemic is over?
Do you think companies will tend to adopt a hybrid model (i.e., mostly remote work but also requiring in-person attendance once a week)? Would companies tend to be primarily remote-first or remote-friendly?
What are the main advantages and disadvantages of migrant workers coming to work in Buenos Aires?
Do you identify any barriers or challenges (e.g., policies) that hinder the expansion and consolidation of teleworking?
What are the main challenges that may prevent the local government from consolidating this initiative?
81 The questions listed here were general but I also asked ad hoc questions targeted to different audiences, Do you identify any enablers (e.g., initiatives, policies, programs) that promote the expansion and consolidation of teleworking?
Mention three enablers to continue and expand the attraction of digital nomads.
Mention three challenges to continue and expand the attraction of digital nomads.
Mention three enablers to continue and expand the creation or attraction of new startups/software companies.
Mention three challenges to continue and expand the creation or attraction of new startups/software companies.
Do you anticipate implementing other programs so they can stay longer?
Are there other policies complementing BA Digital Nomads?
What are the main challenges that may hinder attracting more people to work from Buenos Aires?
Request demographic data of digital nomads arriving in Buenos Aires.
Where digital nomads stay?
How long do they stay?
How much do they spend per month?
Where digital nomads come from? Please list at least the top 5 countries.
What kind of preferences (in terms of recreation, culture, sports, use of public spaces, mobility, housing, etc.) do digital nomads have?
What are the countries ranked as top destinations for digital nomads?
What are the main concerns from the fiscal perspective?
Request demographic data of workers.
Do you think the foreign exchange restrictions may affect the decision of people to come work from Buenos Aires? Why? Why not?
What do you think about the law on Legal Regime for Teleworking (Law 27555)?
What do you think about the law on the Promotion of Knowledge Economy (Law 27570)?
Do you think any labor or fiscal reform is necessary to leverage the software sector? Why? Why not?
Do you consider the influx of migrant workers can suppose any threat to local workers within the same industry?
Do you anticipate the influx of remote workers could create new inequalities?
What direct consequences do you think telemigration will have in Buenos Aires? Please, focus on the socioeconomic, spatial, and urban implications.
The pandemic has ‘killed’ downtowns. How do you envision the porteño downtown once the pandemic is over? How do you envision Parque Patricios Technological District?
APPENDIX B
Survey with digital nomads and other remote workers living in CBA – English version82.
Section 1 - Who are you? Please, let us get to know you a little more.
What is your age?
▼ 16 (1) ... 100 (85)
How would you describe your gender?
o Male (1)
o Female (2)
o Prefer to self-describe as (non-binary, non-conforming, gender-fluid, agender, transgender, intersex): (3) ______
o Other. Please, specify. (4) ______
o Prefer not to say (5)
82 The respondents could choose between the English and the Spanish version. What is the highest level of education you have completed?
o No formal education (1)
o Some years of elementary school (2)
o Elementary school (3)
o Some years of high school (4)
o High school diploma (5)
o Some years of vocational/tertiary education (6)
o Vocational/Tertiary education (7)
o Some years of undergrad education (8)
o Bachelor’s degree (9)
o Some years of graduate education (10)
o Master’s degree (11)
o Some years of Ph.D. education (12)
o Doctorate degree (13)
o Other. Please, specify. (14) ______
If you have pursued higher education, please enter the discipline or field even if you have not obtained the diploma yet (e.g., BS in Computer Science, M.S. in Data Analytics). If you haven't pursued higher education, please enter "N/A".
______
Current occupation. If you’re currently studying, please mention what and in which institution (e.g., M.S. in Data Analytics at Universidad Tecnológica Nacional).
______
Years of work experience
▼ 1 (1) ... 60+ (60)
What is the type of your employment? Please select all the options that apply.
▢ I work for an startup (1)
▢ I work for a company (5)
▢ I run my own startup (6)
▢ Self-employed or independent worker (2)
▢ Freelance (3) Other. Please, specify. (4) ______
Do you work for a company that is based in Argentina?
o Yes, I do. (1)
o No, I don't. If you work for a company based in another country, please specify where it is located. (3) ______
How long have you been in the City of Buenos Aires?
o Less than 3 months (1)
o Between 3 and 6 months (2)
o Between 6 months and 1 year (3)
o More than one year (4)
o More than 3 years (5)
o More than 5 years (6)
What kind of residency do you have?
o A transitory residency (aka tourist visa). (1)
o A precarious residency (renewable every 90 days). (2)
o A temporary residency. (3)
o A permanent residency. (4)
o Prefer not to say. (6)
o Other. Please, specify. (7) ______
Do you see yourself forced to leave and reenter the country every 90 days?
o Yes (1)
o No (2)
o Other. Please, specify. (3) ______
How much do you earn per month? If your income varies month to month, you can provide an estimated amount. All amounts are expressed in U.S. dollars.
o Less than $499 (1)
o $500-$799 (2)
o $800-$999 (3)
o $1,000-$1,299 (4)
o $1,300-$1,499 (5)
o $1,500-$1,999 (6)
o $2,000-$2,999 (7)
o $3000-$3999 (8)
o $4000-$4,999 (9)
o More than $5,000 (10)
o If you want to share the exact amount, please enter it below. (11) ______
o I don't have any income at this moment (13)
o Prefer not to say (12)
Where do you pay your income taxes?
o In Argentina (1)
o Overseas (2)
o Other. Please, specify. (3) ______
o Prefer not to say (4)
Where did you travel from? Please, enter the city and the country (including other jurisdictions in Argentina).
______
What country were you born in?
▼ Afghanistan (1) ... Zimbabwe (241)
What is your mother tongue?
▢ Arabic (1)
▢ Chinese (2)
▢ English (3)
▢ French (4)
▢ German (5)
▢ Italian (6)
▢ Japanese (7)
▢ Korean (8)
▢ Portuguese (9)
▢ Russian (10)
▢ Spanish (11)
▢ Other. Please, specify. (12) ______
Do you speak other languages? Please select all of them excluding your mother tongue.
▢ Arabic (1)
▢ Chinese (2)
▢ English (3)
▢ French (4)
▢ German (5)
▢ Italian (6)
▢ Japanese (7)
▢ Korean (8)
▢ Portuguese (9)
▢ Russian (10)
▢ Spanish (11)
▢ I only speak my mother tongue (12)
▢ Other. Please, specify. (13) ______
Did you come alone or with someone else? Please select all that apply.
▢ I came alone (1)
▢ Partner (2)
▢ Kids (3)
▢ Friends (5)
▢ Colleagues (6)
▢ Other family relatives. Please, tell us who: (4) ______
▢ Other. Please, specify. (7) ______
If you came with someone else, please specify who and how many for each category (e.g., 1 partner, 2 kids).
______
Section 2 - Tell us a little bit about your life in Buenos Aires! How long do you plan to stay in the City of Buenos Aires?
o Less than 3 months (1)
o Between 3 and 6 months (2)
o Between 6 months and 1 year (3)
o More than one year (4)
o More than 3 years (5)
o More than 5 years (6)
o I don't know (7)
Why did you choose the City of Buenos Aires to work?
______Please tick one box in each row to assess your level of satisfaction with the following aspects of Buenos Aires. Neither Somewhat Extremely I don't have Extremely Somewhat satisfied nor disatisfied disatisfied an opinion satisfied (1) satisfied (2) disatisfied (3) (38) (39) (40)
Cost of living (1) o o o o o o
Time zone (2) o o o o o o
Weather (3) o o o o o o
Healthcare (4) o o o o o o
Education (5) o o o o o o Cultural life and entertainment (6) o o o o o o
Nightlife (7) o o o o o o
Safety (8) o o o o o o
Affordable housing (9) o o o o o o Urban and architectural heritage (10) o o o o o o Public transport and walkability (11) o o o o o o
Proximity to parks and other green areas (12) o o o o o o
Coffee shop, co-working spaces and other workspaces o o o o o o (13) Internet connectivity (14) o o o o o o Community of remote workers, network and other o o o o o o relational factors (15)
Warm people and friendliness (16) o o o o o o
Multiculturality and diversity (17) o o o o o o
Gastronomic offer (18) o o o o o o
Freedom of speech (19) o o o o o o Closeness to other touristic attractions (20) o o o o o o
Tech hub and innovative ecosystem (21) o o o o o o
Opportunities to start a business (22) o o o o o o Easiness of getting a visa (23) o o o o o o
Name other things (if any) you like of living in Buenos Aires.
______
Name other things (if any) you don’t like of living in Buenos Aires.
______
Where are you currently staying? Please provide the exact address or intersection of streets (e.g., Avenida Santa Fe and Avenida Coronel Díaz).
______
Where do you work? Indicate all valid options.
▢ Home (1)
▢ Office (2)
▢ Coffee shop (3)
▢ Co-working space (4)
▢ Other – Please, specify. (5) ______
What kind of accommodation do you live in?
o Hostel (1)
o Hotel (2)
o Airbnb (3)
o A long-term rental (4)
o Other – Please, specify. (5) ______
How much do you pay in rent per month?
o Less than $299 (1)
o Between $300 and $499 (2)
o Between $500 and $699 (3)
o Between $700 and $999 (4)
o Between $1,000 and $1,499 (5)
o Between $1,500 and $1,999 (6)
o Between $2,000 and $2,499 (7)
o More than $2,500 (8)
o Prefer not to say (9)
If you study, where are you enrolled?
o In an Argentine public institution (on-line modality) (1)
o In an Argentine public institution (hybrid or in-person modality) (2)
o In an Argentine private institution (on-line modality) (3)
o In a Argentine private institution (hybrid or in-person modality) (4)
o In an overseas institution (5)
o In on-line platforms (e.g., Coursera) (6)
o I'm not a student (8)
o Other (7) ______
What kind of health insurance do you have?
o Public (1)
o Private (prepaid medicine, aka "prepagas" - e.g., "OSDE", "Swiss Medical", etc.) (2)
o Social security (obras sociales - e.g., "OBSBA", etc.) (3)
o Travel insurance (e.g., Universal Assistance, AXA, etc.) (4)
o Other. Please, specify. (5) ______
Section 3 - Finally, let us know how you use and assess the urban amenities.
What kind of transport do you use? Select all that apply.
▢ Pedestrian mobility (1)
▢ Public transport (bus, metro, Metrobus, etc.). (2)
▢ Private transport (car, motorcycle, pickup truck, van etc.) (3)
▢ Ride-sharing system (e.g., Uber, Lyft, Cabify, DiDi, etc.) (4)
▢ Public bike-sharing system (EcoBici provided by the local government) (5)
▢ Private bike or scooter-sharing system (e.g., Grin, Lime, etc.) (6)
▢ Own bike or scooter (7)
▢ Other. Please, specify. (8) ______
Do you go to parks or other green areas in the City of Buenos Aires (e.g., EcoParque, Reserva Ecológica, Costanera)?
o Yes (1)
o No (2)
If you answered "Yes", please tell us how often you go. Otherwise, please select the last option.
o Every day (1)
o A few times a week (2)
o A few times a month (3)
o A few times a year (4)
o I do not go to parks (5)
If you've used BA Wifi, how would you assess the public wireless network?
o 1 (Too bad) (1)
o 2 (2)
o 3 (3)
o 4 (4)
o 5 (5)
o 6 (6)
o 7 (7)
o 8 (8)
o 9 (9)
o 10 (Excellent) (10)
How would you assess the private internet connectivity (mobile data, cable or optical fiber, satellite, etc. - e.g., Personal, Claro, Fibertel, Arnet, Iplan, etc.)?
o 1 (Too bad) (1)
o 2 (2)
o 3 (3)
o 4 (4)
o 5 (5)
o 6 (6)
o 7 (7)
o 8 (8)
o 9 (9)
o 10 (Excellent) (10)
Have you encountered language barriers since your arrival?
o Yes (1)
o Maybe (2)
o No (3)
How likely is that you recommend Buenos Aires to a colleague or someone else?
o Extremely likely (9)
o Somewhat likely (10)
o Neither likely nor unlikely (11)
o Somewhat unlikely (12)
o Extremely unlikely (13)
This is the last question! Considering the things you may not like and the barriers you may have encountered, does any of them may compromise your stay in the city?
______