I agree the main issues are about perceived impact of itinerant visitors (who treat a community like their amusement park) and spending disparity (paradoxically

I agree the main issues are about perceived impact of itinerant visitors (who treat a community like their amusement park) and spending disparity (paradoxically giving locals income and also driving up prices). And, those who are visibly "foreign" are easier targets to vent when frustrated. Ignoring that, I am following the tangential topic about digital nomads, work visas, and taxes. I think the regulations are still trying to catch up. Some folks have a fantasy that when the internet is involved, they are working in cyberspace at the remote end of their network connections. But, the actual rules in most jurisdictions tend to be about your physical location while working. They usually lack any clear rules to disambiguate the spectrum from "traveler on holiday making a few phone calls" and "permanent work from home with foreign employer". This is a gray area and relies on selective enforcement. My experience is a little dated, but I think it is still, sadly, too relevant. I was an expat in SEA about 20 years ago. I was not an itinerant nomad. My partner took a local job there and I went along for the adventure, so we tried to settle in one place. But, my best work prospects remained in the US tech market, just like a digital nomad. My US clients knew they didn't want the hassle of hiring me outside their normal tax jurisdiction, nor the legal risk of pretending I lived in a US mailbox. All the legal advice we could find led to one frustrating answer. To be totally legal, we had to start a local consulting company and take on some local staff (and local shareholders!) so that our company could sponsor my work permit. This also awarded me the right kind of extended visa and proper re-entry permits for when I needed to travel internationally. Our company then had to engage my US "employer" via subcontract. We effectively had to have local staff on retainer even though I didn't need them to satisfy my US client's needs. We had the accounting and tax headaches of running that company, plus local personal income taxes in our host country. Then, as a US citizen, I still had to file US income taxes and try to get all the exclusions and credits to avoid double taxation. Aside from losing money to pay unnecessary local staff, it was difficult to minimize profits that would distribute to the shareholders for what was just an overly complicated solo consultancy. At the same time, I was well aware that others were flying below the radar. They ritualized "visa runs" to cross borders and reenter on temporary tourist visas. They played games where they told a different story to each jurisdiction about where they were really domiciled. I've often wondered how many of them succeeded in this cheating game for decades since I knew them, or whether they eventually got caught up in some kind of financial disaster.