The dissertation project is driven by the question what policies aimed at the return of migrants to their home countries tell us about the actors formulating them. Starting out from this overarching interest, I investigate what discursive strategies Western European state actors use to justify migrant return policies, and what political objectives these strategies serve. In a first descriptive step, a comprehensive mapping of return policies in two exemplary country case studies (the United Kingdom and Germany) is carried out. In a second step, I investigate and compare how migrant return policies are justified in specific national arenas, and how these policies relate to and reflect both international norms and national conceptions of membership. This is done through an in-depth analysis of the policy-making processes leading up to and following the establishment of temporary protection schemes and voluntary return programs administered by the International Organization for Migration, paying close attention to these policies' degree of voluntariness and to the stated motivation of the actors formulating them.