As immigration to Europe continuously increase, so does governments efforts to control and manage these moving populations, and their national borders. Today, returning migrants without a residence permit is often regarded as a natural measure within the immigration control apparatus, but the means to ensure return, the populations targeted and their legal rights have changed over time. This thesis aims to understand the developments of return policies in the case of Norway, from 1988-2010. By combining the analytical approach of governmentality with theorisations about deportations and migration policy development, I seek to understand how the return regime has been established and transformed. The analysis is based on policy documents as the main material, and the qualitative content analysis reveals that the return regime has developed from several measures initiated to achieve control over different challenging and unforeseen situations that arises throughout the period. Short term solutions create problems in the long run, and the solutions add on to create and establish the return regime.