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Temporary labour migration is becoming intellectually topical once again. Following renewed government interest in temporary labour migration on a global level, migration scholars are now also showing renewed interest in the area. In this essay, we seek to explore the potential of these two movements, by states and by scholars, to yield different outcomes than earlier dialogues surrounding guest-worker programmes in the 1970s and 1980s. By looking at key ideological elements of temporary labour migration, we assess the potential for an alternative trajectory for understanding and reframing the discussion in terms that are capable of responding in a more emancipatory way to the lived experiences of migrant workers. We identify three concepts central to most analyses of temporary migration policies and programmes: temporariness, the labour market and rights. Our central contention is that these concepts function ideologically, and as such they constrain innovation with regard to temporary migrant labour programmes. We draw on Hannah Arendt's work in The Human Condition to work towards an alternative conception of what is at stake in temporary migration programmes.