Germany needs more immigrants, the head of the country's powerful business federation told DPA on Tuesday.Grillo's comments followed the protests in Dresden organized by Patriotic Europeans against Islamization of the Occident (Pegida), with the number of people who attended Monday night's protest climbing to about 17,500 - up from about 15,000 a week ago."We have long been a country of immigration, and we must also remain so," said Ulrich Grillo, the chief of the German Federation of Industry (BDI).Refugees should be welcome in Germany, Grillo said. "As a welfare state - as well as out of a sense of Christian charity - our country should take in more refugees," he said.Grillo's comments followed the protests in Dresden organized by Patriotic Europeans against Islamization of the Occident (Pegida), with the number of people who attended Monday night's protest climbing to about 17,500 - up from about 15,000 a week ago.The rise of anti-immigration and Islamophobic tendencies in Germany and the rest of Europe have been raising a concern among minorities living in Europe, especially felt by Muslims. Germany has been an immigrant receiving country since the 1960's, more specifically after the World War II. The German Parliament has recently passed a law that enables children born and raised in Germany to parents of another nationality to hold dual citizenship. The new law was welcomed by immigrant communities in Germany, especially by Turkish immigrants, which constitute one of the largest immigrant communities in Turkey.