ABSTRACT
In attempts to seek simple explanations for causes of international migration, demographic arguments play an important role in the way political are commonly understood in contemporary societies. The concept of 'overpopulation' - explicitly
or merely implied - a central position in this line of argumentation. It states that a certain society or region is inhabited by a larger number of human beings than is compatible with the natural or economic resources of this society or region. This disproportion or disequilibrium produces 'population pressure* which results in migration. The most significant - and currently the most frequently encountered - field of application for this hypothesis is the area of migrational relationships between the prosperous north and the impoverished south of our contemporary world. The Third World's rapid population growth and slow economic development are interpreted as "overpopulation* which is, in turn, construed as the cause of international migrational flows - and even, in some research, presented as a threat to developed societies or to the very future of our planet. Terms such as 'population bomb' and 'population explosion1 give expression to such fears and concerns. It that demographic arguments are powerfully attractive because they take complex sets of facts and circumstances trace them back to a single cause - one which is, moreover, seemingly plausible (Sen, 1994).
