Violent conflict displaces millions of refugees to neighboring countries every year in the Global South, where refugees and host citizens often share coethnic ties. How does coethnicity shape the reception and integration of these refugees? We examine the case of Afghan refugees in Pakistan, where both refugee and host communities have substantial Pashtun ethnic membership. Using a survey with embedded conjoint and vignette experiments conducted among 3500 host citizens (of whom 2275 are Pashtun), we find that respondents significantly prefer Pashtun to non-Pashtun refugees. Additionally, compared to non-coethnics, coethnic Pashtun Pakistanis are more supportive of Afghan refugees and inclusive immigration policies. However, this preference is not uniform across coethnics – almost all of this coethnic solidarity is driven by Pashtuns living in districts outside of the Pashtun ethnic homeland province. We further find little evidence that appealing to shared ethnic ties affects Pashtun attitudes towards refugees. Qualitative interviews and focus groups support these findings. Ultimately, we cannot assume coethnic solidarity for refugees and migrants; this research contributes to our understanding of how local identity politics and geographic distribution shape refugee reception, highlighting the complex interplay between ethnic solidarity and territorial politics in conflict-affected regions.