ABSTRACT
This chapter first discusses the concepts of wellbeing and return, and then analyses how the Norwegian government frames assisted return (AR), as well as the assumptions that these return programmes are based on. It examines return decisions in the case of migrants whose asylum applications have been rejected by the Norwegian authorities. Based on interviews, the chapter distinguishes between three different subjective understandings of 'return': return as foreseeable, return as an uncertainty, and return as continued migration. It also discusses how migrants' understanding of return is tied in with various aspects of their wellbeing. The chapter presents a comparison between the government's framing of return and migrants' understanding of return. Finally, it argues that a gap exists between these two understandings of return; this gap has several consequences for the ways in which programmes often malfunction and the possibility of migrants' wellbeing.
