This text’s main objective is to assess the importance of the return of Portuguese emigrants in 2001-2011, in the light of the number of people who came back, their sociodemographic profiles, the variations in the countries they came from, and the emergence of new forms of mobility. A more particular goal is to produce a typology of forms of return: some more associated with the traditional view of people emigrating when they are of working age and coming home in the retirement phase of their lives; others that suggest movements of a different type, with earlier returns while the returnee is still working. The authors also look at how an increase in complex mobility patterns can lead to a different pattern of returns. Recent data reveal some of the new mobility formats, including a growing trend towards circulation.