Bad Attitudes and Good Soldiers: Soft Skills as a Code for Tractability in the Hiring of Immigrant Latina/os over Native Blacks in the Hotel Industry

This article examines employers' perceptions, attitudes, and preferences regarding native black and immigrant Latina/o workers in the Los Angeles hotel industry. We find that the employers in this industry almost universally prefer immigrant Latina/o workers over native blacks for entry-level, hotel maid jobs. Moreover, we find that employers stress soft skills (attitude, work ethic, interaction skills) to frame their hiring decisions for entry-level jobs when in fact these preferences appear to speak more to tractability. Thus, we caution researchers about the coded meanings of the soft skills concept and about uncritically classifying employer talk about attitudes, motivation, and work ethic as indicators of soft skills when these preferences appear to speak more to immigrant Latina/o vulnerabilities in shaping employer hiring decisions. Keywords: race, soft skills, immigrant Latino and native black workers, employer discrimination, hotel industry.