Life in many third-world countries is a daily round of frustration.  Western institutional ways of doing things, which are in reality mechanisms of conflict avoidance, are, for various reasons, not in place.  This situation breeds two related attitudes, especially in any contact with authority or bureaucracy.  One is an assumption that any such contact will be conflictual.  The other is that of a sense of pervasive powerlessness.  The person takes it for granted that any situation is an unchangeable given, and therefore that situations exist to serve existing interests, rather than his/her interests.  The person therefore conceives of any contact as necessarily fraught with conflict.

The problem is in a sense magnified when people immigrate to Canada or other Western countries.  The newcomer finds themselves in a situation where they have major problems (as opposed to relatively minor ones they faced at home), yet with a perception of powerlessness (inherited from their background) to solve them.  The person continues to proceed according to the old rules of behaviour.  The result is that the person appears hostile and demanding.  They lack the apparently simple knowledge that one will likely be listened to if one complains or makes demands.  This, of course, creates much unnecessary social conflict and personal unhappiness.  Appropriately-expressed needs may help reduce the need or chance for conflict.  Just imagine yourself growing up and becoming an adult in a place where you have no control over anything . . .