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This article discusses various matters on migration. The Political Participation of Ethnic Minorities in Europe workshop was organized by the European Consortium for Political Research and was held at the Leyden University, The Netherlands, on April 2 to 8, 1993. This workshop explores the factors which constrain or facilitate the participation of ethnic minorities in the political process and the extent to which such participation has furthered or diluted the pursuit of ethnically-based interests. Meanwhile, the Annual Meeting of the American Catholic Historical Association: Philadelphia was held April 16 to 17, 1993. It included the following papers: The American Catholic Response to Recent Immigration, by M. L. Sullivan; Ybor City Latins and the Church, by M. J. McNally; and Puerto Ricans and the Archdiocesan of Chicago, 1963-1970, by T. Kelliher. In other matters, The Forum for Researchers on Islam in Europe was established to encourage the development of information and interdisciplinary research on Islam and Muslim populations in Europe. It foresees a publication of a newsletter, directory of members, publication of an international bibliography in 1993, a symposium in 1994, and an international conference in 1995.

For the United States, the issue of the impact of aggregate economic conditions on legislative election returns has received extensive research. For European countries, however, research is much less plentiful. In particular, multiparty systems such as France and Italy lack study. For both these nations, we find that worsening aggregate economic conditions significantly increase the legislative vote for leftist parties, which have traditionally played an opposition role. Further, these models seem strong enough to provide good prediction of the actual legislative vote share. For example, they manage to forecast the 1981 victory of the left in France, and the 1980 Communist party support in Italy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]