Revisiting the Motivations behind Remittance Behavior: Evidence of Debt-Financed Migration from Afghanistan

[Please do not cite without permission] In an insecure environment like Afghanistan, many families consider establishing household members at different geographic locations as a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.