Utilizing data from a national survey on China's internal migrants, this study investigates the relationship between entrepreneurship and migrants' identification with local citizenship. Our findings reveal that entrepreneurship fosters a stronger sense of identification with local citizenship among migrants. However, the type of entrepreneurial motivation plays a different role. Opportunity-driven entrepreneurship, pursued due to perceived market opportunities, is more conducive to promoting migrants' citizenship identification compared to necessity-driven entrepreneurship, which arises from a lack of alternative employment prospects. Two possible mechanisms through which entrepreneurship facilitates socioeconomic status and social integration are examined. The positive link between entrepreneurship and citizenship identification highlights entrepreneurship as a potential pathway for cultivating belongingness among migrant communities and has important implications for migrant integration policies.
QC 20250821