Issues Facing Asian Community Detailed : Study: Population increases mean needs must be addressed, report says.

An explosion in the population of Asian-Pacific Americans over the next 30 years is threatening to transform problems of poverty and discrimination suffered by Asians into crucial national issues, according to a report released Thursday by UCLA Asian American Studies Center.

The report, jointly authored by the Los Angeles-based Leadership Education for Asian-Pacifics (LEAP), estimates that by 2020 the Asian-Pacific population will nearly triple to just more than 20 million, or about 8% of the nation’s population. The greatest impact will be felt in California, where Asian-Americans will account for as much as a fifth the state’s population.

Given the enormous demographic change, the report’s authors say that policy-makers on the local and national levels must begin to grapple with social, economic and political issues that have been largely ignored.

“Asian-Pacific Americans cannot be dismissed as an insignificant minority group,” Shirley Hune, UCLA dean of graduate programs, wrote in the report’s introduction.

“For over a quarter of a century, Asian-Pacific Americans have been the fastest-growing minority group in the United States. We are an integral part of the country’s historical development and of its future,” she wrote.

According to the report, released in Washington, the problems experienced by Asian-Americans have been overlooked not only because of the relatively small size of the community but also because of the stereotypical vision of Asians as the “model minority”--self-sufficient, successful and assimilated.

That image, however, is largely a myth, the report states. For example, the poverty rate for Asian-Pacific Americans is twice that of Anglos. Half of Southeast Asians in the United States live below the poverty line. The report notes growing anti-Asian violence, “glass-ceiling” discrimination and restrictive college admissions quotas are other problems affecting Asians in recent years.

Exacerbating the problems is the fact most policy-makers are “largely ignorant” of the needs and concerns of this segment of the population, which includes nearly 30 major ethnic groups, the report said.

The report also points out that Asian-Americans have been underrepresented in politics--another factor in the lack of local and national attention focused on the community’s needs.

The failure to respond to the problems could have profound implications for the nation as the Asian-American community becomes a significant portion of the population, the report said.

“The year 1993 represents a historical crossroads for our country, when every major policy issue, from education to employment, will be re-examined,” said J.D. Hokoyama, president of LEAP and one of the authors of the report. “We hope our report will serve as a call to action for a policy of inclusion rather than exclusion when it comes to Asian-Pacific Americans.”

Asian-Americans are now the fastest-growing segment of the population. The group increased by 95% from 1980 to 1990, compared to 6% for Anglos and 53% for Latinos.

The U.S. Census Bureau recently estimated that from 1992 to 2050, the Asian-American population will increase by 412.5%, compared to 50.2% for all groups.

According to the report, nearly half the Asian-American population will be foreign-born in 2020.

The report, titled “The State of Asian Pacific America: Policy Issues to the Year 2020,” will be presented at public round-table discussions scheduled across the country.

The Los Angeles discussion is scheduled for 2 to 5 p.m. Tuesday at the Hyatt Regency Los Angeles.