Immigrants Care: How Immigrant Early Educators Hold Up the Care Economy
Child care is a cornerstone of our nation’s social and economic infrastructure — supporting children’s healthy development, helping families achieve financial stability, and sustaining the economy. Yet the system relies on a workforce that is too often undervalued and underpaid. Early educators — overwhelmingly women and disproportionately women of color and immigrants — are essential to maintaining access to quality care. Immigrant early educators, in particular, play a vital role in meeting the needs of our increasingly diverse young population, but face unique barriers and risks due to harmful immigration policies and rhetoric.
This brief highlights how immigration policy directly affects the stability of the child care workforce and, by extension, the well-being of children and families. It calls for early childhood advocates and policymakers to center immigrant educators in efforts to strengthen and sustain the early care and education sector.
Contributing organizations: UnidosUS and National Women’s Law Center (NWLC)
