A/51/301 English Page 15 Moroccan origin. Compared to the total number of acts of racist violence, those against North Africans have reached the unprecedented level of 70 per cent; "(3) The tendency to see xenophobic opinions as a part of everyday life is spreading to more and more levels of society." 9/ 28. There are also immigration-related problems in Switzerland, where the Commission fédérale contre le racisme has recently submitted to the Federal Council a report on the Swiss policy on migration. The report analyses the "three circles model" adopted by the Federal Council in 1991 to regulate the recruitment of foreign labour. 10/ Within the inner, or first circle, which includes citizens of the European Union and the European Free Trade Association, the movement of labour is completely free; and in the middle (second) circle, which currently comprises the United States of America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and to which the States of Central and Eastern Europe may later be added, a limited number of people may be recruited. Theoretically, there can be no recruitment in the outer (third) circle, comprising "the rest of the world", except for special cases involving highly qualified specialists. 29. The distinctions are based on criteria of geography, culture, national politics and economics. The Commission has expressed reservations concerning the arguments which have been used to make the distinction between the second and third circles, particularly the "culture gap" argument. Referring to the positions taken on various occasions by the Federal Council, the Commission has noted that "persons from the third circle are considered incapable of becoming integrated, and therefore undesirable, because they do not belong to the same culture broadly characterized by European ideas". The Commission considers that "the three circles model is basically racist. The arbitrary division of the world into concentric circles centred upon Switzerland is ethnocentric and Eurocentric. The categories introduced in the three circles model define people by their origin. The model creates new social realities which have negative and discriminatory effects upon part of the population living in Switzerland. This contravenes the purposes of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, offends against human dignity and, all in all, is a threat to civil peace in our country." 10/ 30. The Commission further considers that "the division of the world into close and distant groups, those who can or cannot become integrated, which has been established by the authorities and is constantly cited by the general public, and the resulting construction of an image of the alien, the ’Other’", has symbolic effects which are harmful. The Commission recalls that "all recent scientific studies concerning the issue of ethnic and cultural otherness emphasize the influence of dominant discourse, such as that of State institutions, on the formation of groups, the hardening of boundaries and the escalation of conflicts." 10/ 31. The situation of migrants in the United States of America also merits consideration by the General Assembly. The problems occur when migrants cross the frontier between the United States of America and Mexico. There has been "a mobilization against foreigners unprecedented since the second world war", 11/ particularly in California. The situation is due to the "illegal" entry of /...