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We provide evidence that the occurrence of an international migration episode is associated with a variation in the living arrangements of the household members who remain behind. The migration of a married Mexican man typically induces his wife to join the household of her own parents, a change that is at odds with the patrilocal norm that prevails in the country. This change in living arrangements produces two relevant implications for the analysis of the effects produced by migration on the individuals left behind: it leads to attrition in longitudinal household surveys, so that econometric analyses become uninformative about the effects on the left behind who adjusted their living arrangements, and it gives rise to a relevant heterogeneity in these effects.