The influx of immigrants boosted the wages of highly educated mothers like me by helping them get back into the workforce, according to a 2007 paper, “Cheap Maids and Nannies,” by the labor economists Patricia Cortés (University of Chicago) and José Tessada. I knew that intimately. The only reason I’d been able to travel to Indianapolis so frequently was because of a wonderful, trustworthy, and affordable au pair from Mexico who’d come over on a cultural exchange program.
