Germany must ease restrictions on immigration to provide the skilled workers, from engineers to computer experts, it urgently needs to ensure future economic success, a leading demography expert said.
Reiner Klingholz, director of the Berlin Institute for Population and Development, said that migration to Germany had come to a virtual halt in the last two years.
There has been a heated debate about immigration in Germany in recent months.
He said Germany desperately needed immigrants despite unemployment running at 3 million people.
"We need the workers now," he told the Foreign Press Association. "We can't wait 10 years for those on unemployment to become trained engineers.
"Immigration is essential for Germany."
Germany long had an annual influx of 200,000 immigrants but in the last two years has seen a net exodus of 15,000, Klingholz said. New restrictions, including language aptitude tests, meant migration from Turkey had almost completely stopped.
The recruitment of "guest workers", often unskilled labour, from Turkey from the 1960s was an important element in what became known as Germany's economic miracle after World War Two. Now a wide range of countries outside the European Union, including Turkey, offer more skilled workers the economy needs.
The German Chamber of Industry and Commerce says Germany lacks about 400,000 skilled workers and seeks more immigration.
For months Germany has been embroiled in a debate about the place of immigrants following publication of a book by former central banker Thilo Sarrazin, "Deutschland schafft sich ab" (Germany does away with itself).
The central banker argued too many immigrants have failed to integrate into German society. Opinion polls show he has widespread support and some conservative politicians have since adopted a number of Sarrazin's positions.
Klingholz said the shortage of workers in Germany would worsen in the years ahead. The number of working age people in Germany -- aged 18 to 65 -- will decrease 30% by 2050.
