Pharaoh was Semite Hyksos and Joseph was a Semite Jew. Joseph never did assimilate into the Egyptian culture regardless of his wife and position. The Egyptians were xenophobic and viewed themselves as a “better” class of people than other races. They were descendants of Noah’s son Ham. Joseph remained true to Jehovah God and never worshipped the polytheistic false gods of the Egyptians. Without his birth family nearby Pharaoh must have realized the potential tenuous relationship Joseph had to the nation Egypt. Now that the famine emergency planning was accomplished, what would keep him in Egypt? Pharaoh needed Joseph and wanted his family to join him here. If his family was with him in Egypt then the chance of Joseph staying in Egypt to serve Pharaoh was strong. So Pharaoh essentially commanded Joseph to instruct his brethren to take wagons (first mention of wagon in the Bible) with adequate provisions for the trip back to Canaan and return with his father. From time immemorial Egypt was rich in small, two-wheeled carriages, which could be used even where there were no roads (Genesis 50:9; Exodus 14:6; Isaiah 36:9).
