Emotions are often used to categorize migrant and refugee populations, and to place them into particular subject positions. In much of the literature on the education of migrant and refugee students, emotions are viewed through a therapeutic lens. Against this backdrop, I argue that curriculum inquiries need to pay more sustained attention to how emotions are generated and circulated through complex discursive practices and to their potential implications for the curricular experiences of migrant and refugee students. I discuss some principles of Critical Emotion Studies, which constitute an analytical framework for future curriculum inquiries.