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Comment by gotchange | Hacker News Reader

I believe that France didn't open its borders to this wave of refugees/migrants but I could be mistaken since I don't follow the news this closely.

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France cannot really control the wave of migrants anyway. But it is unlikely that the terrorists are one of these migrants. My guess is that they were French nationals/residents.

>My guess is that they were French nationals/residents.

Based on what? I'm pretty uninformed here, and it seems like a lot of people are bringing up refugees. Curious why you think the opposite.

We do not know yet the identities of the terrorists, so only a guess based on the previous three years of attacks in France.

also the TVs are mentioning terrorists speaking French, which if confirmed strongly support this guess.

What he means is french muslims , which are nationals/residents. Charlie Hebdo attackers were french nationals, though having a north african/african background.

Almost certainly. But it does make a difference. Most French muslims come from Algeria and Marrocco and can't really claim to have been affected by the war in Syria. There are deeper roots to home grown terrorism than the Syrian conflict.

At least they speaks french according to witnesses http://www.mediapart.fr/journal/france/131115/paris-frappe-p...

There were eyewitness reports that the gunmen were talking to each other in French. So, that's something. If they were recently-arrived refugees that probably wouldn't be the case, though it doesn't rule out long-term embedded groups.

France is part of the Schengen area so there were no borders to open. The signs read 'Bienvenue en France'...

https://www.flickr.com/photos/redlotusmama/4583584976

What do you mean by that? The border between France and neighboring nations is always open.

It's open but that doesn't mean that everyone who shows up at the gate will be allowed in, right?

there are no gates

Under normal circumstances there is no gate to speak of.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schengen_Area

What gates? You can walk or drive from France into Spain or Belgium or Germany and not even notice.

Have you crossed a French land border lately? There are no controls. There are no gates between France and other Schengen countries.

There are no gates. There is a sign. http://travel.jeffersoncampervan.com/Pictures/PixoriginalSit...

Cross border travel within the EU is like moving between states in the US, easy to miss.

What about airports?

I'm very positive that they check people's passports and papers in airports.

The vast majority of European travellers use trains or roads, not air travel.

Actually, air travel is the most common mode of transport in intra-EU travel.

http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/...

Trains are a tiny 6%.

Only if you're arriving from outside of Schengen. Within Schengen, there are only ID checks if the airline themselves have them there to avoid ticket resales.

Sometimes. About 5 years ago, I walked off a plane from Baltimore to Rome and out of the airport like it was a domestic flight. No stamp or anything.

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