On a continent accustomed to headlines about chronically high unemployment and fearful of immigrants, European politicians face an unusual task: finding workers for their companies. And executives gathered in Davos are urging a politically unpopular solution: let skilled immigrants fill labor shortages that will continue to grow as the work force in Europe declines sharply amid a slowing in birth rates and a rise in the number of retirees. The population of Europe is projected to slide over coming decades, and in some countries the decline will be dramatic: Germany, currently the largest country in the 27-member European Union, with over 80 million inhabitants, could find itself with just 25 million people at the end of the century, some estimates suggest.
See "Europe faces labor shortages as population ages", Katrin Bennhold, International Herald Tribune, January 25, 2007