Abigail Foulds is currently a doctoral candidate in Geography at UK. She obtained a MA from UK and a BA from Simon’s Rock College of Bard in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. She lived in Nicaragua in 2001 and has been traveling there since. Her MA thesis examined the impact of foreigner-owned business in the tourism development of Granada.She has also lived in Thailand (Uttaradit and Chiang Rai provinces) for 8 months, Kyiv, Ukraine for 2 months and she literally circled the world by herself when she was 18 years old.

Her dissertation research examines the gentrification of the Spanish colonial historic district of Granada, Nicaragua by foreigners from the global North.
Beginning in the late 1990s, tourists and expatriates from the US, Canada and other countries of the global North have “discovered” post-revolutionary Nicaragua. These people have been drawn by the lure of this tropical frontier that is picturesque and brimming with potential. Many who come just to visit end up staying and purchasing a colonial-style home or a piece of land.
These expatriates are looking at the colonial historic city center of Granada, Nicaragua as a potential site for relocation and investment. The recent high costs of property markets in many places in the global North, most notably the US, pushed people to look abroad; gentrification has gone international, spreading to the global South. These migrants are purchasing and remodeling the colonial-style homes as part of a broader transformation of the central district towards tourism with increasing numbers of businesses there aimed at foreigners (e.g., real estate firms, guesthouses, restaurants with English-only menus) Although the frenzy has subsided due to the global economic slowdown, many continue speculating that Nicaragua will remain a hotspot (if, perhaps, for different reasons).
Expatriates are able to benefit from capital accumulated in the global North and from state-sponsored retirement benefits (such as social security in the US) to live mobile, transnational lifestyles. Further, the Nicaraguan government has courted expatriates with tax incentives offered to retirees and foreign business owners. Such economic opportunities are not available to many Nicaraguans, highlighting inequalities between local residents and transnational migrants.
Many expatriates involved in the gentrification occurring in Granada are choosing transnational lifestyles by maintaining citizenship in their home countries while simultaneously engaging in economic and social relationships in both Nicaragua and their home countries. Among the population exists surprisingly diverse patterns of residency, mobility and commitment to the city. Some only visit two weeks out of the year to stay in their second home, others have moved to Granada indefinitely and have invested heavily, while most lie somewhere in between with varying degrees of political and economic attachment to the city, and with widely diverse patterns of mobility (e.g. snowbirds, circular migration, etc.).