The massive nature of Egyptian migrations over the last four decades has become a central element in the national imagination, cultivated by writers, filmmakers and journalists who themselves have very often been migrants at some time in their lives. If the topic is so successful, other than the fact that it represents a major social phenomenon, this is because it questions the foundations of the national imagination, which is deeply rooted in a patriotic view, but at the same time is torn between two poles, the Gulf on the one hand, and Europe and USA on the other. Cinema, and literature as well, produce a critical vision of migration, in condemning both host countries and Egyptian society. Away from their homeland, migrants run the risk of losing their Egyptian identity under the influence of the more conservative values of the Gulf States, or the more liberal values of the West. At the same time, cinema and literature deliver a devastating criticism of the new Egyptian society born from the Infitâh, describing it as the collapse of traditional family and educational values, corrupted by easy money. Critical repertoires usually join forces in condemning the migrant as a vector of social change who threatens Egyptian moral values, and accuse the Egyptian government of being responsible for the death of young people who cross the Mediterranean Sea illegally, and of being incapable of standing up for the rights of Egyptian citizens living abroad. Beyond these criticisms, what is at stake is the redefinition of links between individual and collective identities, and ongoing reevaluation of the national ideal. Although the topic perfectly expresses the tension between identity and otherness common to all contemporary Egyptian literature and cinema, it has largely been unexplored by researchers. Based on a corpus of Egyptian novels and films dealing with recent international migration, this paper aims to explore the nexus between migration and identity, through a comparative perspective. The recurrent question of identity is dealt with at four levels: the nation, the society, the family and the body of migrants. I will argue that the main representations of Egyptian migrations, both in the cinema and in the literature, are still embedded in methodological nationalism rather than in a transnational paradigm.