Returning refugees are an important aspect of economic reconstruction, and the reconciliation process after the civil war. For this reason, extensive research has been done on the relationship between return migration and economic performance. From those studies, some identify a positive relationship while others find a negative relationship between returned migrants and their economic performance. The overarching aim of this thesis is to investigate the effect of the differences in economic performance between returned refugees and non-migrants during the post-conflict process of reconciliation. First, the economic performance of returning refugees will be compared with the performance of non-migrants using Bosnia-i-Herzegovina and Rwanda as cases. Second, the study will relate the resulting differences to the process of reconciliation. Thus, as the title suggests, is coming back not the same as staying? The empirical analysis that was conducted in this study shows that return migrants earn higher hourly wages, compared to non-migrants. Moreover, the results shows that returned refugees and Internal Displaced People have higher hourly wages compared to people who stay in the home country during the conflict. The differences in hourly wage are likely to influence the process of reconstruction and reconciliation in the post-conflict country.