Global nomad refers to people who are living an international lifestyle. They travel from one country to another without a permanent home or job and their ties to their country of origin have loosened. Most of them work in jobs that are location independent such as IT, writing, teaching, and handicraft.
Nomad originally referred to pastoral nomads who follow their herd according to the seasons. Unlike traditional nomads, global nomads travel alone or in pairs rather than with a family and livestock. They also travel worldwide and via various routes whereas traditional nomads have a fixed annual or seasonal pattern of movement, and although pastoralists are professional travelers, they move in relatively limited areas mostly walking or riding donkeys, horses, and camels. Global nomads, on the other hand, travel worldwide.
The modern-day global nomads' lifestyle has become possible because of fast and relatively cheap transportation methods as well as the communication technologies that enable people to connect in real time across wide geographical distances. Global nomads often come from Western countries. They are privileged actors: they have the financial resources to move (either they have savings or they sell their property or they get a pension) or they have the talent needed to set up a small business venture in their new location. Global nomads also hold passports that allow them to move more or less freely.
Global nomads' lifestyle is characterized by high mobility. They might stay in one place for days to months. However, sometimes the term is also used to refer to lifestyle migrants who travel between their country of origin and their new, chosen home country.
Famous quotes containing the words global and/or nomad:
“The Sage of Toronto ... spent several decades marveling at the numerous freedoms created by a “global village” instantly and effortlessly accessible to all. Villages, unlike towns, have always been ruled by conformism, isolation, petty surveillance, boredom and repetitive malicious gossip about the same families. Which is a precise enough description of the global spectacle’s present vulgarity.”
—Guy Debord (b. 1931)
“In economics, we borrowed from the Bourbons; in foreign policy, we drew on themes fashioned by the nomad warriors of the Eurasian steppes. In spiritual matters, we emulated the braying intolerance of our archenemies, the Shi’ite fundamentalists.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)