How Immigrants Shape the Care Workforce: Policy and Practice Perspectives

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Abstract

Caring for young, elderly, and disabled people is essential to our economy, and yet wages in the care economy are some of the lowest (Mclean et al., 2024). Poor compensation--along with challenging working conditions--reinforces worker burnout and turnover (Whitebook and Sakai, 2003; Woodhead et al., 2016). All the while, carework is predominantly performed by women of color, and in many states, by immigrant women. In this roundtable, we will discuss the intersectional effects of immigration and carework, with an emphasis on the caregivers themselves. 

Early care and education (ECE): At least one in five members of the early care and education workforce were born outside the United States. In states like Florida, California, and New York, the share is two in five. In particular, immigrants are prevalent among home-based providers, who operate as a sole proprietor or small business owner. Immigrant workers play a key role in mitigating ECE scarcity, and they report enhanced commitment and intention to stay in their jobs. (Powell, 2025; National Women’s Law Center, 2025)

Long term care (LTC) for elderly and/or disabled adults: More than one in four direct care workers were born outside the United States, including approximately one in three home care workers. Similar to ECE, immigrant workers hold a disproportionate share of jobs in this sector of the care economy, and the share of LTC workers who are immigrants has increased steadily over time. (Chidambaram and Pillai, 2025; Zallman et al., 2019)

Citations:
Chidambaram, P. and Drishti, P. (2025). What Role Do Immigrants Play in The Direct Long-Term Care Workforce? KFF. https://www.kff.org/medicaid/what-role-do-immigrants-play-in-the-direct-long-term-care-workforce/ 
National Women’s Law Center. (2025) Immigrants Care: How Immigrant Early Educators Hold Up the Care Economy. https://nwlc.org/resource/immigrants-care-how-immigrant-early-educators-hold-up-the-care-economy/ 
McLean, C., Austin, L.J.E., Powell, A., Jaggi, S., Kim, Y., Knight, J., Muñoz, S., & Schlieber, M. (2024). Early Childhood Workforce Index – 2024. Center for the Study of Child Care Employment, University of California, Berkeley. https://cscce.berkeley.edu/workforce-index-2024/.
Powell, A. (2025). Nearly Half a Million Early Childhood Educators Are Immigrants. Center for the Study of Child Care Employment, University of California, Berkeley. https://cscce.berkeley.edu/publications/blog/nearly-half-a-million-early-childhood-educators-are-immigrants/
Whitebook, M., and Sakai, L. (2003). Turnover begets turnover: an examination of job and occupational instability among child care center staff. Early Childhood Research Quarterly 18 (3). https://doi.org/10.1016/S0885-2006(03)00040-1 
Woodhead, E., Northrop, L., and Edelstien, B. (2016). Stress, Social Support, and Burnout Among Long-Term Care Nursing Staff. J Appl Gerontol Jan;35(1):84-105. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25098251/ 
Zallman, L., Finnegan, K. Himmelstein, D., Touw, S., and Woolhandler, S. (2019). Care For America’s Elderly And Disabled People Relies On Immigrant Labor. Health Affairs 38 (6). https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/10.1377/hlthaff.2018.05514

Policy Area

• Family and Child Policy

Moderator

• Catherine Ettman, Johns Hopkins University

Organizer

• Anna Powell, University of California, Berkeley

Speakers

• Priya Chidambaram, KFF

• Maribel C Carvajal, Hispanas Amigas Inc

• Denise Vasquez Peguero, Best Home Health Care