Would being the son of refugees that never went to college be a “hook”?
No
I’d probably say “maybe.” The first generation may provide a slight bump, even if it is not a hook, at some colleges.
The refugee part, IMO, is only in interesting if you were the refugee, The child of a refugee, particularly their refugee parents are now living as part of the 1%, is a far less compelling story. Regardless, I’d file it under “it is what is is.” No college application has a section that says “Check here if you have a hook.” In this case, you list your parents’ education and the college uses that info as it sees fit.
It is part of your back-story and can help to make you an interesting candidate, but I would not count it as a hook. A hook is a reason that a particular school wants one particular student to be a part of its class. Typical examples of hooks include a football quarterback that is being recruited at the college, the child of a huge donor (who the school hopes to get additional donations from), a person who might bring positive fame to a college (ex. Malala). Very few people have hooks and if you had one you would know it.
And I agree with @intparent that your story could resonate differently depending on if you or your parents came to the country as refugees. But in either case I don’t see it as a hook.
The refugee part - not by itself. Not unless your parents - and you - are members of an under-represented minority (URM). For most colleges, that means black or Hispanic, but there are some colleges (mostly LACs in the East Coast and Midwest) that consider Asian URM. If you’re a URM, then that is a hook.
If neither of your parents went to college, though, you would be considered “first generation” or “first gen”, which is a hook at most selective colleges right now. Similar type of hook as URM. The number of first gen students is something the selective colleges are all seeking and many have specific programs to recruit them and report how many they accept each year.
At highly selective colleges, FGLI (First-Generation, Low-Income) is currently a trending hook. It’s one of the hot topics at higher education conferences.
I say “trending” because these schools are targeting higher percentage of FLI population in their schools, as evidenced in this ‘60 Minutes’ segment about Princeton’s effort in addressing the socioeconomic divide and increasing its diversity: