The Schengen ‘wall’ that had kept the Western Balkans and the Republic
of Macedonia casted out from the EU mainland was removed in
2009. Symbolically it coincided with St. Nicholas Day i.e. the celebration
of the patron of children and travellers. The paper examines the
effects of the visa liberalisation and the effects that may follow in case
the newly adopted suspension mechanism is fully implemented. The
basic assumption is that visa liberalization served as a ‘carrot’ to move
forwards the EU integration process while the suspension mechanism
is more of a disciplinary measure (the ‘stick’) but also an indication of
a securitized migration policy. The paper underlines how visa liberalization
has affected the governments’ treatment of the ‘bogus’ asylum
seekers (mostly citizens of Roma and Albanian origin). The research
question concerns the trade-off that national governments have made
in order to preserve the visa liberalization and the impact in terms of
human rights and discriminatory policies.