A Life Rebuilt Through Caregiving in Bentonville, Arkansas

It was Laura’s late husband who moved the family to the United States—to help his parents start a ministry in Bentonville, Arkansas. His parents were retired missionaries who had immigrated to the United States years earlier and were, by then, U.S. citizens.²⁴

“I didn’t want to come,” Laura said, but for three years her in-laws kept pushing. “They were insisting.”

Five years after Laura agreed to relocate, her husband was killed in an accident, leaving her with two children who had integrated into their new life in the United States. “I started doing any kind of job I could do because I needed to support myself,” she said. “I knew that not having a social security number I couldn’t apply anywhere.”

Unauthorized to work in the United States, Laura did what so many immigrant women in her situation do: she worked as a babysitter and nanny. There was always plenty of work, and she was, and still is, good at it, she said. “Every single day I show up.” When a family asked if she knew anyone who cleaned houses, she said, “I know no one, but I can do it.”

Laura spent 14 years taking care of other people’s children. Most of the parents, all U.S.-born, worked for Walmart, which has its headquarters in Bentonville.

Last year, when Laura became authorized to work in the United States, she took a full-time job at a friend’s office. But she still works part-time for the family she had been nannying for. “I take my lunchtime at 3:30 p.m., and I pick up the kids from school.” She remains in high demand for her childcare work. “A lot of families know me.”

Laura is grateful for the babysitting work, and to have been able to help these American families. “The family I worked for for many years, that family was a blessing,” she said. “They paid me very well. Every year they gave me a bonus. They valued my work.”

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Immigrant Nannies Make Work Possible for a New York Family

Liz is a fourth-generation New Yorker who found her family’s first nanny through a neighborhood parent group, and their second—after a break during COVID-19 when they lived with her parents—through a nanny co-operative. Both nannies were immigrants, simply because, as Liz put it, “The bulk of nannies who are working in Brooklyn are immigrants.”⁵

“We decided to go with a nanny when my first son was very young because he had pretty serious food allergies, and managing his food was a pretty concerted effort,” she said. Both Liz and her husband work, and both would like to continue doing so.

Liz works in child welfare and philanthropy, helping families across the country care for their children. Her husband is a medical researcher, helping to develop next-generation gene therapies that are already saving lives.

“I like working. I want to be working. I think that the work I do is worth doing,” she said. “If I didn’t have somebody who I thought was safe and caring and aligned with my kids every day then I wouldn’t be working.”

The current nanny, Maria, has worked with the family for four years.⁶ She provides daytime care for their three children, ages 2 through 6, for 42 hours a week. She makes $36 per hour plus overtime, equating to about $80,000 per year.

It’s certainly a substantial sum, and Liz is grateful that she and her husband can afford it. But, said Liz, daycare is also expensive. Three-child families like Liz’s in New York City pay an annual average of $69,000 for daycare.⁷

“The nanny’s work makes all the other work happen. My kids adore her, fully and completely, and they’re legitimately obsessed with her kid,” who the nanny sometimes brings with her, Liz said. “These are essential and important and contributing members to our society and economy.”

Interacting with the nanny gives the children exposure to another culture—over and above the occasional informal Spanish lesson. “We live in a diverse city, and I want my kids to know a variety of people from a variety of places, and to value people from different backgrounds,” Liz said. The family can trust that Maria will devote the personalized attention their children need: “My son with anaphylactic allergies has never had a reaction with her. And I can’t say the same for me.”

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