This research explores the journeys of migration and desire of Egyptian migrant workers, men and women, who were professionals in Egypt during the 1990s and migrated to occupy low-wage/low-status employment positions in New York City’s service sector. It focuses on their migration stories and histories, their experiences of contradictory class mobility, their production of households and families, as well as their racialization in the post-9/11 era. Cairo Papers in Social Science 30/3.