Germany's New Recruits

Only a year and a half ago, Rohith Ajjampur was teaching at a computer training school near Bangalore in India's high-tech heartland. Almost by accident, he saw a newspaper photo of a German computer executive wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the slogan, "Are you Indian?" Intrigued, he visited the company's website and saw that it was looking for programmers. Today Ajjampur, 25, is working at the Berlin Internet firm Datango — the company that advertised on the T-shirt. "I never expected this to happen," he says, gesturing to the surrounding high-rises of the East Berlin skyline.

Ajjampur represents...