What migrant care workers from Zimbabwe sacrifice for their children’s futures

Now, halfway across the world from everyone she loves, Ruby works round the clock to make enough money to bring her family together again.

Being a live-in care worker for seniors in the UK is hard work. It involves lifting people in and out of bed all day, feeding them and sometimes changing their diapers. All that while keeping on top of their housework too. 

For Ruby, a 30-year-old mother of three from Zimbabwe, this wasn’t her dream job, but that didn’t matter. She was determined to give her kids a better life. So she sacrificed her career as a teacher and left her kids back home in Zimbabwe to become a care worker in the UK. 

Ruby won’t let anything stand in the way of getting her kids and husband to England, where they can receive free education and healthcare, things she doesn’t have in Zimbabwe. But the real question is: Can Ruby sustain the punishing routine long enough to pull it off?

Greener Pastures, a podcast episode by Radio Workshop, captures the highs and lows of Ruby’s mission: the intimate relationship she built with her client, the joy of her husband’s first day of work in the UK and the madness of working opposite shifts. And not least, Ruby’s momentous trip home to get the kids. 

When Ruby arrived in the UK in January 2024, she quickly learnt that the real England is far from the romanticised version people have back home. 

While not exactly the “greener pastures” she expected, her visa offered her the opportunity to earn pounds. After struggling to support her family on a teacher’s salary in Zimbabwe, that meant everything to her. 

Ruby’s first job involved providing round-the-clock care to a woman in her nineties. She was paid to work eight hours a day, but it was a 24-hour job. She says sometimes she’d call her friends just to cry. 

But Ruby says she was lucky. The woman she was caring for was kind and did everything she could to make Ruby feel at home. Not like the horror stories Ruby heard from colleagues about being spat on by racist clients.

But arguably, the biggest challenge will begin with the start of their family life in the UK. Ruby explained: “In a year or two, [the kids are] going to be different people. But, I am there to remind them of their roots.” DM

Listen to Greener Pastures on Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.