Abdulrahim's research focuses on social inequalities and health, the social and cultural meanings of subjective health evaluations, and the structural conditions that influence the well-being of immigrants and refugees. She conducted research on racial identity formation among Arab immigrants in the United States and is currently fielding a study funded by the International Labor Organization on migrant female workers in Lebanon. She teaches courses in health promotion theory, forced migration and health, and global public health. The myth of mass Bedouin criminality is foregrounded despite documented evidence that some families were forcibly and illegally displaced by the authorities and had returned, while others had been ordered by the authorities to live and work on the land under question.