Not necessarily. They could just be stuck in a cycle of poverty and be a drain on the system.

It's quite difficult to immigrate to Canada as an unskilled immigrant.

Not sure why you are being down-voted. I thought down-voting on HN is not for disagreement, but for bad behaviour. You bring up a valid opinion. It's like the arrogant crowd of HN is in favor of eugenics.

My parents came over to Canada as unskilled and my bro and I have masters level education and high salaries.

Also another HN thread a few weeks ago was on a Globe and Mail article titled "Chop Suey Nation". Article was about all the low-skilled chinese immigrants who start up restaurants in small towns - general theme is to get their children a better future.

I guess we are in the Trump era now.

Skilled parents are more likely to have skilled children. Even ignoring any possible hereditary intelligence correlation that might exist, having good job prospects will naturally heighten the chance of their children doing well.

There are also more than enough skilled people waiting to come here. With a backlog of skilled works the west has the opportunity to be selective (refugees are another subject). I personally support the idea that they should be more open to skilled workers. Although Canada already does a pretty good job compared to the US. Apparently the UK is looking into copying Canada's policies following Brexit.

But even here in Canada skilled immigrants often get associated with unskilled or illegal immigrants, or just generally misunderstood in terms of the value they bring, which (unfairly) puts pressure on reducing numbers.