In an insecure environment like Afghanistan, many families consider establishing household
members at different geographic locations as a way to hedge against risks to a sustainable
livelihood. In this study we examine whether such a location-based household strategy rests on
remittances as an alternative source of income, exploiting the way in which migration is financed
as a discriminating factor. Ultimately, our results show remittance transfers are in fact lower for
debt-financed migrants, and the influence of certain individual and household characteristics of
interest are in line with what we would expect if altruism is the dominating motivation. In light
of this finding, we conclude that the sending of a household member abroad as a risk-coping
strategy may be less about having an alternative source of income and more about having an
alternative location to escape to if the security situation happens to take a turn for the worse.