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Imagine working from sunny Lisbon, Portugal, while earning a high wage from your home country – sounds perfect, right? Digital nomads are flocking to Lisbon for its charm, lower living costs and vibrant lifestyle. However, this trend has a flip side. Lisbon, already facing housing problems, sees rental prices rise as more digital nomads move in.

This influx causes gentrification, making it harder for locals to afford housing. While living abroad is great for digital nomads, it could strain the local economy and community. Balancing the benefits of remote work with sustainable urban living is crucial for cities like Lisbon to thrive without pushing out their residents.

What:

Beyond the unique opportunities for digital nomads in Lisbon, the Portuguese study also dives into the broader economic, social and spatial impacts of remote work, just like in the other case studies.

  • Economic impacts on productivity and mental well-being
  • Social impacts on quality of time and quality of life
  • Spatial impacts on daily mobility, land-use, air pollution and noise
  • Case-study specific impacts in terms of segregation of digital nomads and local (tele)workers, as well as socio-spatial impacts (such as gentrification) in the Lisbon metropolitan area

Where:

The wider socio-economic impacts of remote work are examined for the whole of Portugal, but we zoom in on Lisbon metropolitan area to examine its spatial impacts on daily mobility, land-use and spatial segregation.

Who:

  • Are you a company located in Portugal, employing at least 5 employees? Then participate in our employer survey. In case you have received an invitation from us, click ‘log in’ at the top of this page. If not and you want to participate, then click ‘I want to participate’ in the box below.
  • Are you an employee living in Lisbon Metropolitan Area? Then participate in our employee study.
  • Are you a digital nomad living in Lisbon but working for a company abroad? Then participate in our digital nomad study.
  • Are you a stakeholder (expert, policy-maker, practitioner, …) interested in the future of remote work in Portugal and more specifically Lisbon? Then sign up for our Stakeholder panel.

Course of the study

  • Step 1: 1000 companies will kick things off with an employer survey about their remote work policies, workforce productivity and mental health concerns.
  • Step 2: Next up, 1000 employees will share their remote work experience in an employee survey. We’ll dive into its impact on work-life balance, productivity and mental health, and see if it might inspire employees to move residences or change jobs.
  • Step 3: The excitement continues as 400 employees will use the mobile-friendly MOTUS app to complete a time use diary. Make it to this stage, and you might win an exciting prize!
  • Step 4: Then, we will invite 30 employees for an in-depth interview to explore how remote work impacts household arrangements.
  • Step 5: Unique to the Portuguese study, we are looking for 500 digital nomads to participate in an online survey about their experiences of living and working abroad in Lisbon.
  • Step 6: Finally, insights from these employer and employee studies will fuel a series of local co-creation workshops. Here, stakeholders will discuss the future of remote work in Portugal and Lisbon metropolitan area more specifically.

Interested to participate?

Click on ‘I want to participate’ to find out if you are eligible for the study. If you are already a participant, you can proceed to ‘log in’ at the top of this screen.

Regional contact for this study

Prof. dr. João de Abreu e Silva (IST-ID)