[bieh]

I moved to Lisbon in 2020, and I've become increasingly aware of the impact that high-income remote-worker immigrants like me are having on the city, and other similar places. I've been thinking of building something to try and help:

https://www.reddit.com/r/PortugalExpats/comments/vy0i5r/crit...

It's proved... controversial! I'd be interested to get HNs take.

[ahepp]

I think it puts a pretty negative framing on immigration, that it's something you have to buy an indulgence for. Maybe that's true. Being a well paid tech worker who might try the expat lifestyle someday, I'm pretty biased. But I also wonder what it might look like to frame things in a more positive light. Maybe that could be connecting immigrants to jobs making a productive impact in the local economy, or showcasing local investment opportunities. Just from a pragmatic perspective, I feel like this kind of positive framing is more likely to get engagement. People get very defensive, very fast, if you make them feel as if they've done something wrong (even if they have).

[bieh]

Hey, thanks for the reply! Yeah, absolutely -- with hindsight, the phrasing that I used was far too negative.

I suspect I need to go with something very carefully phrased around "helping give back", rather than "you're a terrible person, make recompense for your crimes!", haha.

[jstarfish]

This is going to sound harsh, but it's coming from a place of astonishment.

To make up for buying your way into a region and contributing to the displacement of locals, you are offering to create an internet platform to solicit donations of other people's money to support a welfare economy.

It's an idea as absurd as Russia funding orphanages for Ukrainian children displaced by war, or patting yourself on the back for resuscitating someone you just tried to drown.

If you feel that guilty about it, leave. Charity from conquerors is not generosity, it is an imposed dependency-- literally the opposite.

Don't feel too bad though. This is the nation that pioneered the global slave trade; they've done far worse to the rest of the world in pursuit of a dollar.

Buying a house and paying above market rate for it is not a crime against humanity you should feel compelled to make amends for. You are already making a landlord and nearby service providers wealthier than they would be without you there. Count your blessings and live your life.

[spaniard89277]

You can't solve the issue unless you build (much) more housing. An app to donating to charity is like nothing. You have good intentions but it is what it is.

And even if you build housing, you somehow need to reduce the induced demand.

[bieh]

Yeah, for sure. But I can't build houses (to the scale required), I can only build tech :)

Obviously this would 100% be a problem better solved by government. But I don't see any evidence that they're planning to do that, so ...