I spent an hour chatting today with a retired English soccer player. He had a long career as a professional in England and Scotland, and then went into television and dabbled in print, too.

He has recently moved to Dubai. Where he intends to reinvent himself.

“I spent 20 years in Glasgow,” he told me. “I stayed too long. … In Britain right now, it feels like the walls are closing in. It was time to try something new.”

Our conversation happened the same day The National did a story about how the UAE is one of the leading destinations for British expats. Tenth in the world (with 65,000 of them living here), which is impressive, considering how small is the UAE, population 7 million.

Why are the Brits here in such numbers?

We go back to the topic raised in yesterday’s post.

The economy.

Britain is not in awful economic shape, but neither is it humming along. The pound is strong, perhaps too strong for people living there. London is ruinously expensive.

Thus, they continue to explore their options, and more than a few of them come here. Mostly for jobs. Sometimes just to escape their dark and soggy islands for the sun of the UAE.

I find admirable their willingness to get up and go. They have been doing it for centuries.

The outflow really got going with the North American colonies, 300 years ago. The original 13 colonies were overwhelmingly British, ethnically. (Even now, the U.S. gene pool is more than 20 percent British.)

The American Revolution was a significant British loss, but it didn’t check their outflow to other hospitable parts of their empire.

Australia and New Zealand are essentially British. So is Canada, even now. The whole of those countries.

Brits went to wide swaths of the Caribbean. South Africa. In the early 20th century, to other parts of Africa, including Kenya and Zimbabwe. To Hong Kong and Singapore.

Millions of Brits assessed the situation in their homeland, did the math and took ship for somewhere far away, often to find a much better life than the one they left.

Granted, the fact that much of the world was part of the Commonwealth, a century ago, and that the sun never set on the British Empire created semi-familiar cultures on very unfamiliar shores. No matter where they went, they were likely to find other Brits already there.

I believe we must concede they have a mental toughness and a willingness to adapt that few other nationalities have demonstrated. (Though modern Filipinos can give them a run.)

A willingness to look outside your own borders? Often, it makes good sense. And when you leave home, Brits can confirm you can take a little of it with you.