<br ><br >Preface<br > With this publication， our two institutions--Leadership Edu-<br >cation for Asian Pacifics (LEAP) and the UCLA Asian American<br >Studies Center -- continue a partnership which has led to the es-<br >tablishment of the nation s first Asian Pacific American public<br >policy institute. We hope this policy report， like others we have<br >already released and those we will publish in the future， will serve<br >to inform public discussions and shape public policy delibera-<br >tions about the most important and compelling policy issue-<br >areas facing the nation s rapidly growing and diverse Asian Pa-<br >cific American population.<br > There is no question that economic issues are of immense<br >interest and concern to all Americans. There has been substantial<br >debate and speculation about the health and recovery of the<br >American economy from various vantage points， be it from Wash-<br >ington， Wall Street， or South Central Los Angeles. Public opinion<br >polls in recent years have shown that the economy is the number<br >one concern of the majority of Americans. Indeed， the 1992 presi-<br >dential campaign， which had been forecast to be a referendum on<br >George Bush s first-term performance in the diplomatic and mili-<br >tary arenas， became dominated by domestic economic issues like<br >creating more jobs， reducing the federal budget deficit， and<br >revitalizating urban cores.<br > This report on Asian Pacific Americans and the American<br >economy is intended to respond to the compelling public interest<br >on economic policy issues. Asian Pacific Americans， who now<br >number 7.2 million nationally and are expected to grow to 20<br >million by 2020， have been and will continue to be important con-<br >tributors to -- and beneficiaries of -- many different sectors of<br >our nation s economic structure from their high visibility in ad-<br >vanced technology industries to their relative invisibility among<br >the ranks of the working poor and unemployed.<br > Asian Pacific Americans are an extremely diverse popula-<br >tion， anld their roles in the American economy are also diverse<br >and multifaceted. As Ong and Hee note in one of the chapters in<br >this boek， "It is impossible to distill the economic status of Asian<br >Pacific Americans into a single statistic." Unfortunately， that hap-<br >pens all too often， particularly when unwarranted and simplistic<br >conclusions are drawn from a few census indicators to label Asian<br >Pacific Americans， in monolithic terms， as a successful or model<br >411<br >Vll<br ><br >