This study aims to explore the representation of refugee-related content in the social studies curricula and textbooks of South Korea and the United States and to draw implications for social studies curriculum development. The study conducted a qualitative analysis of the 2015 Revised Social Studies Curriculum, 2022 Revised Social Studies Curriculum, “Social Studies”, and “Integrated Social Studies” textbooks of South Korea. It also examined the social studies curricula of 50 states in the U.S. and high school social studies textbooks from major U.S. publishers. The findings are as follows: first, refugees are scarcely mentioned in both the Korean and the U.S. social studies curricula. Second, in South Korean curricula, refugees were predominantly addressed in the context of international problems and global population movements. In contrast, U.S. curricula covered refugees concerning U.S. security, U.S. history, and global and domestic population movements. Third, refugees were commonly depicted as a group requiring support from the international community. While there were some efforts in South Korea to incorporate learning materials depicting the lives of refugees and in the U.S. to highlight the contributions of refugees to society, there is a limited number of contents addressing the human rights and lives of refugees in both countries' curricula. Based on these findings, the study suggests increased attention to refugee education in social studies, emphasizing in-depth discussions on the content of refugee education. Furthermore, the study recommends shifting the direction of refugee-related education in social studies toward education 'with' refugees.