Returning migrants without an authorisation to stay has become a major policy focus of the EU’s migration policy since the 2015/2016 ‘migration crisis’ resulting in a perception that return is increasingly taking centre stage in both the EU’s internal migration policies and in relations with neighbouring and developing. However, thus far these developments have been studied mainly in the form of case studies covering specific instruments or non-EU countries, and hence we lack a longitudinal and comprehensive assessment of the role of return for EU migration policies. This paper aims to trace the evolution of return policy norms by analysing a novel corpus of Commission policy documents and press releases related to migration and return between 1985 and 2024, using descriptive and machine learning methods of text analysis. We find that the prominence of return overall has not consistently increased over time. We also do not find a linear increase in the external dimension and cooperation with third countries, but rather a change in focus from development funding to connecting return to visa facilitation and back to questions of development. In addition, border control has gained prominence within return-related documents over time. We also find significant differences in the topics covered in policy documents and press releases, with development-related topics and visa liberalisation being more prominent in press releases than in policy documents. The findings shed light on our understanding of the EU’s return policy and of the norms the Commission highlights both in policy and in public communication.