ABSTRACT
This chapter describes what extent, if at all, the ex-Yugoslav states that found themselves in the midst of the 2015 refugee/migrant crisis—the crisis which they neither generated nor actively provoked—were able to derive political rewards or payoffs from it. It focuses on refugee/migrant movements as reported chronologically in the local media and the public statements regarding the crisis by ex-Yugoslav states' political leaders. The ex-Yugoslav states include the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia. The chapter explains the political dynamic in each of the countries under consideration but focused on the local conditions only to the extent that they directly impacted the refugee/migrant issues. It examines the public statements regarding the crisis by ex-Yugoslav states' political leaders directed primarily at their counterparts in the European Union (EU) who were the primary targets of coercion. The Macedonian Foreign Minister Nikola Poposki justified the border closure by claiming that FYROM wanted to be a part of the EU.
