This study examines the question of remittance behaviour and seeks to explain the wide variation in remittances sent by African migrants to households of origin in South Africa. The data for the empirical study come from the detailed national household survey conducted in South Africa during 1993, the Project for Statistics on Living Standards and Development (PSLSD). Between August 1993 and December 1993, some 9000 randomly selected households were surveyed, over 4000 of which were African households in non-urban areas, and approximately 35 percent of which contained migrant workers at the time of the survey.