Moving to a Non-Metropolitan Area: The Information Channels of International Migrants Going to the Department of Calvados

In the context of the development of national dispersion policies in Europe, a growing body of literature has been focusing on small and mid-sized cities as points of arrival for migrants in these specific cases of forced mobility. However, little work has been done on the trajectories of migrants who voluntarily move to apparently unattractive territories. Based on the example of the department of Calvados in Normandy, and drawing on qualitative data, this paper analyses the information practices developed by international migrants that are in a situation of information precarity and who are faced with Europe’s externalized and internalized border control. By looking to the source and nature of elements that were the reason for their decision to move to Calvados, this article sheds light on the types of information and actors that shape migrants’ itineraries. Furthermore, this article discusses the dynamics of trust and distrust between migrants and their various interlocutors and questions the characteristics of those identified as relevant providers of information. This article highlights the impact of administrative procedures and reception arrangements on migrants’ trajectories, as well as the central, albeit ambivalent, role of transnational social capital in relation to finding the right information in a new territory.