I read the article “In ‘Mothercoin’, the labor of love transcends borders”, in which the power dynamics and consequences immigrant nannies face throughout their careers. To even call these careers is controversial, as the article discusses that these jobs often are seen as inferior or “women’s work”. Elizabeth Cummins Muñoz wrote Mothercoin after interviewing countless nannies at the park as a mother herself. The women she interviewed were mainly immigrants, the ones mentioned were from El Salvador. They discussed the love they inherit for the children they nanny while simultaneously losing affection from their own mothers back home. One of these women, Pati, remembers thoughts like “Why can’t I tell my mom I love her? Why can’t she tell me she loves me?” when reuniting with her mother after nannying in the states for years.
I agree with the Muñoz when she discusses that “unpaid labor is feminized in the U.S.”. She delves deeper: the nanny is “there to do the labor that has been coded as feminine and non-economic and selfless and a labor of love in order to provide materially for her own family.” A lot would need to be reexamined to really draw a box around what is deemed as labor.