As an important addition to the discussion, an absolutely open border policy is not desirable in my view, either. It typically has not done the things that it has promised - ie. buttressing the tax base, invigorating communities, increasing productivity...
Ross Douthat wrote a great piece here:
http://douthat.blogs.nytimes.com/201...n-immigration/
I found this point particularly cogent to Canada. Low-skill immigrants tend to drive down wages for future low-skill immigrants, and not natives. Thus, the less control exerted on immigration, the more difficult it is for recent immigrants to catch up to natives.
Quote:
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The one place where even the most pro-immigration economists generally concede that new immigration drags down low-skilled wages is among the previous cohort of immigrants. Thus the faster immigrant populations replenish themselves, the more slowly they can hope to gain ground economically relative to natives.
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