Are Illegal Immigrants Taking Jobs From American Nannies?

Why Are Nannies Having a Harder Time Finding Great Nanny Jobs?

This month in the Be the Best Nanny Newsletter monthly poll we asked nannies what they thought are the reasons American nannies are having such a hard time finding great nanny jobs? We listed some possible reasons American nannies are having trouble finding jobs including: the economy, illegal immigrants, not having certification or licensing of nannies, and lack of  legislation. This week we will discuss the results of the survey.

The results of our survey show that the number one reason American nannies believe they are having trouble finding great nanny jobs is due to non-citizen, illegal immigrants working as domestics. When we asked the same question on Facebook responders blamed the economy, not illegal immigrants. But, perhaps the anonymity of the survey allowed more nannies to express their true feelings. We cannot pretend that illegal immigration isn't a huge issue of much debate in America.

One viewpoint of the immigration debate is that immigrants are stealing jobs from American citizens. The assumption is that households that employ illegal immigrants as nannies and housekeepers due so because domestic workers in America illegally are willing to work for less money than American citizens. With fear of deportation, illegal immigrants are less likely to demand workers rights such as minimum wage, overtime, sick days, or raises. Although most Americans are ancestors of immigrants, our survey indicates that many American nannies feel that the willingness of illegals to work at dramatically lower rates drags down the compensation for all workers and/or steals jobs from American workers.

The opposite viewpoint is that immigrants actually are good for the economy because they spend their incomes on American goods and services and help raise the productivity of U.S. businesses.

Do you agree with the results of our survey that illegal immigrants working as domestics is the major reason nannies are having a hard time finding great nanny jobs?