The choice of becoming Surinamese or Dutch citizens in the years leading up to Suriname's independence in 1975 led to a mass migration to the Netherlands. This migration continued in the period immediately after independence and during military rule in the 1980s and for largely economic reasons extended throughout the 1990s. The Surinamese community in the Netherlands numbered 350,300  (including children and grandchildren of Suriname migrants born in The Netherlands); this is compared to approximately 566,000 Surinamese in Suriname itself.