This is a sad story. But it also has elements of fairy tales. As well as lies. Some of them sad, pathetic lies … some more along the lines of a lack of “truth in advertising”.

The National has done a story about the phenomenon of migrant workers here paying for fake/doctored photos — which they then can send back home to impress or comfort their relatives, and perhaps attract a potential bride.

I recommend reading it. As well as following the links to the photo gallery and the video.

The UAE has about 8 million people living here. About 7 million are expats, and of that number — I’m just going to make a guess here — perhaps 3 million are involved in hard, sweaty, unglamorous jobs in Abu Dhabi and Dubai and Sharjah. Working on buildings. Landscaping. Putting down roads. Picking up trash. Living six to a room in a labor camp.

Most of them come from the subcontinent, where poverty is rife and men are desperate for jobs. They come over to the UAE and are paid very little money, but that very little money often is a significant amount of money, back home. Sometimes a single worker here will support several relatives in his home country. Even a village.

However, the work he is doing here may not be much different than that he might have done back home. In the sun. Lifting. Cleaning. Sweeping. Working hard. More physical than mental.

He also may have very little contact with home. The occasional phone call, a visit back home every two or three years.

Thus, they have the ability to manage their “image” if they care to, and some do.

It is not uncommon, then, for workers to spend the equivalent of about $6 to have someone in a photo studio take a portrait … and Photoshop his face on to the body of a man wearing a suit. Or standing in front of one of the famous buildings here, apparently having a good time, smiling, healthy, happy.

Some also are trying to dress up their resumes for arranged marriages. (That’s when the concept gets a little creepy.)

As the professor on the video notes, we all attempt to “manage” our image. The guys who are having their heads placed atop men in sharp suits outside the Burj Khalifa or Zayed Mosque … they are trying to impress or comfort people back home.