As the Torah tells in Parashat Vayigash, Yosef ordered his brothers to return to Canaan from Egypt to inform their father, Yaakov, that he is alive and rules over Egypt. They were to then bring Yaakov to live in Egypt, where he would be sustained by Yosef during the drought that struck the region.
In delivering this message to Yaakov, Yosef says, "You shall dwell in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me…" (45:10), expressing his plan that Yaakov and his family should reside specifically in the region of Goshen. Later, when the family arrives in Egypt with all their property, Yosef prepares them for their meeting with Pharaoh and instructs them to inform the king that they work as shepherds, "in order that you shall reside in the land of Goshen" (46:34). Yosef apparently afforded great importance to his family's settlement specifically in the area of Goshen. How might we explain Yosef's insistence on having the family live in this particular region?
Rashi and the Radak (46:34) explain, very simply, that Goshen was well-suited for shepherding. It apparently offered more fertile and verdant pasture land than other regions in Egypt, and Yosef therefore made a point of having his father and brothers settle in that district. In a similar vein, Rabbenu Yosef Bekhor Shor explained that Goshen was generally a higher quality area and Yosef thus wished for his family to reside there and enjoy the very best the country had to offer. (See also Abarbanel to 45:10.)
The Ramban (45:10) explains, somewhat ambiguously, "Yosef knew that his father would not want to remain in the land of Egypt [proper] where the royal capital was situated, so already now he sent to him that he would have him reside in the land of Goshen." According to the Ramban, the appeal of Goshen was its remoteness. He realized that Yaakov would prefer to live in the outskirts of Egypt, distant from the country's cultural and commercial centers, and therefore chose the land of Goshen for this purpose.
The Ramban likely had in mind the notion presented by Rav Shimshon Refael Hirsch in his Torah commentary, where he emphasizes the importance of Benei Yisrael's relative seclusion in Goshen (46:34). Rav Hirsch comments that Yosef saw the Egyptians' distaste for shepherds as his family's greatest asset, as it would help ensure the preservation of their national identity and ethical lifestyle. He writes:
…for the disgust which the Egyptians had for their [Benei Yisrael's] calling…was the first means for the preservation of that race that was destined for an isolated path through the ages. Until the spiritual moral morn dawns for the nations of the world, the barriers…which they have…raised against the Jews, have served to protect them from being infected by the barbarism and demoralization of the people in whose midst they were to have to wander for centuries. That is why, here too, Joseph at once brought to the fore that aspect of his brethren which was unpleasant to the Egyptians with the expressed purpose of obtaining thereby for them, a separate province in which to settle.
Yosef thus chose Goshen not because of any intrinsic characteristic of that region, but due simply to its remoteness, which would allow Benei Yisrael to grow and develop independently as a separate nation.
At first glance, one might question Yosef's selection of Goshen on the basis of a passage in Torat Kohanimcommenting on the verse in Sefer Vayikra (18:3), "Do not follow the practices of the land of Egypt, in which you lived." Torat Kohanim (cited by Rashi) infers from this verse that the conduct in ancient Egypt was more depraved than the conduct of any other nation of the time, and, furthermore, that "the place where Israel resided conducted themselves abominably more so than anyone else." A number of super-commentators to Rashi (Siftei Chakhamim, Rav Eliyahu Mizrachi and others) explain that Torat Kohanim refers here to the native population of Goshen. One might wonder why Yosef wanted his father and brothers to reside in this region, which was known for its particularly corrupt and debased culture, and why Yaakov would agree to reside there.
The answer emerges clearly from the very next comment in Torat Kohanim: "And from where do we know that Israel's residence caused all this conduct? As the verse states, 'do not follow…in which you lived'." The Ra'avad explains this to mean that the people of Goshen – and the Egyptian population generally – became especially corrupt as a result of their enslavement of Benei Yisrael. In accordance with the notion of aveira goreret aveira – one wrongful act leads to another – the Egyptians' crimes against Benei Yisrael bred further moral deterioration, until they became the most corrupt nation in the world, and the people of Goshen degenerated to the lowest stratum among the Egyptian populace. Thus, the woeful moral condition of Goshen as described in Torat Kohanim surfaced only after Benei Yisrael's enslavement, and we therefore need not question Yosef's judgment in choosing this region for the area of his family's residence.