The Immigration Debate Is About To Get Worse

Over half of American startups valued at $1 billion or more have at least one immigrant founder. When it comes to the Fortune 500, 40% were founded by either immigrants or the children of immigrants. The tech community argues that certain immigration policies proposed by President Donald Trump could hurt their ability to compete by closing down their access to international talent. Yet Americans workers across the country remain fearful that with so many people coming from outside the U.S. to work, there won’t be enough jobs for them as a result. In this episode, Chip and Caroline sit down Cloudera co-founder and CTO Amr Awadallah to unpack the giant chasm between how the middle of the country views immigrants and the coasts and the tech community do. Awadallah, an immigrant from Egypt, discusses his own rise in Silicon Valley, the tech talent crunch and how this whole discussion is about to get a lot more heated as automation continues to take over more jobs.