Since the infitah period under Sadat, Egypt’s citizens have been a major source of labor in the Gulf countries, and more recently have started migrating in greater number to Europe. Migration remains one of that country’s most significant sources of income and an estimated four percent of Egyptians live abroad. Because most migration is temporary, much of population either have been, or have close relations with return migrants. While each story of travel and subsequent return is personal, the idea of migration is common throughout Egypt. This paper complicates notions of locality and homeland, particularly in light of views about the Mubarak government expressed in interviews from the summer of 2010. These interviews were collected in the weeks following the brutal murder of Khaled Said by police officers in Alexandria, an event that mobilized protests both in the seaside city as well as in the capital. This paper builds from international reports, political science literature and ethnographic accounts to add a new geographic specificity to the study of return migration. Transnational crossing has become a normal part of Egyptian life, and as such, is an integral part of understanding the relationships of citizen to government and of membership to homeland. While the experience of migration might shape an individual in unique ways, the ideas about the Mubarak government were not radically different than those held by many who have not migrated. Thus this project is not just a way to understand returnees or complicate notions of what is local, but also another way to examine the relationship between citizen and state in Egypt. Returnees tended to love their country and its people, but often expressed ambivalent emotions toward “the government.” In the cases where the government was feared, individuals often expressed nostalgia for a “better place” from their past, be it Kuwait, Qatar or Cyprus, where life was perceived as easier. These notions, in turn created more tension about the seemingly unlimited powers of the state. Coupled with this fear or distrust is also the feeling that Egypt is nonetheless home.