Paris ? France will be able to impose fines on companies that discriminate against minorities and on parents whose children skip school, under a proposed law to improve opportunities in immigrant suburbs hit by recent riots, the prime minister said Thursday.

Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said at a news conference that unemployment in low-income areas is twice as high as in the rest of France. Lack of jobs was cited as a main reason for three weeks of rioting that broke out Oct. 27 near Paris and spread across France, baring frustration in communities with high immigrant populations.

Under the measures to be proposed to parliament next year, principals, social workers and mayors can make parents sign a “parental responsibility contract” promising to ensure their children regularly attend school.

Parents failing to sign will be fined, and those who receive family welfare benefits could have them suspended, with the money put in blocked accounts until the situation is resolved, Villepin said.