ADVANCES MADE IN MIGRATION–ENVIRONMENT THEORY
As early as 1992, the International Organization for Migration reported that environmental degradation was already resulting in large numbers of migrants, with the possibility of substantial in creases due to climate change (IOM/RPG 1992). In that same year, Bilsborrow (1992) put forward an early attempt to theorize the environmental dimensions of migration. He linked demographic changes, namely population growth, with economic motivations for land extensification (increasein food demand) and therefore out-migration to rural frontier regions (Bilsborrow 1992). Simple bivariate associations between rural population growth, changes in agricultural land, forest area, and fertilizer use were suggestive of associations in this direction, although coarse, since discussion and analyses focused on the national scale. Presaging lessons learned from more contemporary research, Bilsborrow himself ended with a plea for within-country analyses given that the migration environment association is dramatically shaped by local sociopolitical, socioeco nomic, and socioenvironmental realities.