While studies on refugee-background students in school contexts have been prolific, research of this population in higher education or post-tertiary education is still emergent. The paper attends to this gap by drawing on the narratives of five refugee-background young adults who are undertaking Australian higher education or have completed university studies. An interpretive analysis of their life-story interviews is drawn from Appadurai's concept of 'voice' as a tool to understand the intergenerational nature of 'aspiration'. We illustrate the heterogeneous ways their resourcefulness is activated in pursuit of their aspirations, and the enabling role parental aspirations play in realising their pathways. It offers new insights on the enabling role refugee parents play to support their children's pathway into higher education. It also highlights the significance of individual refugee youth agency in navigating on-going challenges to attain their personal aspirations through education. We argue that the concept of inclusive education should contain a strength-based view of refugee students that positions them as aspirational individuals who are actively engaging in complex forms of negotiation, adaptability and resistance. Further research into inclusive education for increased social inclusion, incorporating the intergenerational aspirations of both refugee youth and their parents is clearly warranted.