Cross-border mobility has not been a recent phenomenon in Ethiopia. However, in comparison with the previous patterns, it is not only the volume but also the intensity and complexity of contemporary migration trends that render today’s version of the Ethiopian outmigration unprecedented in many ways. One important element contributing to these shifting and complex patterns of migration is the recently adopted policies of the Ethiopian government which have been systematic engaged in developing its labour export in a direction targeting mostly the countries of the Middle East. While research and evidence are citing the benefits of outmigration to Ethiopians and their families, including how remittances remain a key financial coping mechanism for otherwise destitute families. Little is known on the situation, perception, and developmental impact of migrant workers who decided to return to Ethiopia; and in particular the disadvantaged groups of migrant women who have initially left the country on labour contracts basis as domestic workers in the countries of the Middle East. This paper calls for the inclusion of the impact of migration on the under-theorised return migration of domestic workers within the contemporary debates and discourses on migration and development. In doing so, the paper aims, first, to highlight the conditions and specific concerns that Ethiopian migrant women domestic workers have to encounter in the Middle East. Secondly, it explores the types of networks which are developed by these women and which enables them to ‘contribute’ and remain connected to their families and communities in Ethiopia. Thirdly, the paper demonstrates the perceptions of Ethiopian migrant domestic workers and their strategies for return or for extending their stay abroad. Finally, the paper highlights the impact of return migration on the Ethiopian women domestic workers living in Addis Ababa; including the challenge to socially and culturally reintegrate and the difficulty to meet the presumed high expectations by family and friends in terms of the social and economic status of the returnee. The findings of this paper are based on a fieldwork carried out in the summer of 2008 among Ethiopian migrants in Khartoum, Cairo, and London as well as among the Ethiopian returnees in Addis Ababa.