Moving Countries

Cover of Moving Countries, Moment Report No. 08

Moment Report No. 08 · 17 pages · 16 sources

What happens to people's habits when they move countries?

A move removes the cues that kept old habits automatic, so for a few weeks choices are unusually open and people act more on their intentions. Help timed just after a move changes behaviour more than at other times. But brand preferences formed at home persist for years, and adjustment is usually hardest at arrival rather than after a honeymoon.

What the report found

  1. The UAE keeps arriving. Dubai's population rose by about 332,000 in 2025, to 4.58 million, and by a further 226,885 in the first nine months of 2026.
  2. Home travels with the money. Outward transfers from the UAE reached 188.8 billion dirhams in 2025, 115.7 billion of them personal remittances. Expatriates in Saudi Arabia sent 144.2 billion riyals home in 2024.
  3. Old tastes travel too. When Americans moved between states, about 60 per cent of the gap in their brand choices closed at once, but it took more than 20 years for half of the rest to close.
  4. A move breaks habits. New surroundings remove the cues that kept old routines automatic, so the first weeks are when choices are most open, and when newcomers are easiest to reach.
  5. The first weeks are the hardest, and then it gets easier. The idea of a honeymoon followed by culture shock is widely taught, but follow-up studies found that adjustment was usually hardest at arrival and improved from there.

What is inside

  1. The arrivals
  2. Before: what people bring
  3. During: habits from zero
  4. After: feeling at home
  5. What lasts

Plus a newcomer's first errands in the UAE, a summary table and a graded list of claims.

Who it is for

For banks, telecoms, retailers, employers, schools and anyone who serves new arrivals, and for anyone who remembers their own first weeks in a new country.

How we work

Moment Reports look at how people think and decide at particular points in the year or in life, starting with the UAE and then the wider Gulf. Every claim is graded Established, Emerging or Untested. Where researchers disagree, as they do on culture shock, both sides are set out before we say where we stand.

Cite this report

The Why We Project (2026) Moving Countries: Rebuilding habits and trust from zero. Moment Report No. 08. Dubai: Why We Tech Ltd. Available at: thewhyweproject.com