In 1965, the Asian-American share of the U.S. population stood at less than 1 percent having been held down by a century’s worth of exclusionary policies explicitly based on race. That was the year at the height of the civil rights movement and in the heat of a roaring economy that the U.S. government opened the gates to immigration from all parts of the world, Asia included. The effect has been transformative for the nation and for Asian Americans. Today they make up nearly 6% of the U.S. population. And in an economy that increasingly relies on highly skilled workers, they are the best-educated, highest-income, fastest-growing race group in the country.