Hello everyone.
I will be moving in to Basel region with wife and two young boys in summer 2011. My swiss employer has an office in Weil Am Rhein in which I will be working. They are willing to hire me on either country. In other words we have to decide whether to live in CH or DE. Net pay will be same in both cases. My experience in living in Switzerland is limited to two years in Neuchatel 2001-2003, without family. So, I was hoping to hear your experienced opinion on this matter. Any comment, based on any reason/s will be appreciated. Naturally, since we have two young boys, we are interested on your experiences with daycare, schools, doctors, etc. We are favoring CH so far, but really with no experience in every day life over there, this is not an easy decision so far. By the way, we do not speak german, yet.
Good day everyone. Thanks, J.

Sorry, this won't answer your question, but have you also considered FR? No special permits needed for EU citizens and I believe that family members get the permit pretty much automatically as well. Haven't lived in Germany myself, but I certainly prefer living in France over Switzerland, much cheaper.

Have a freind who works in Basel and lives in Lörrach (Germany). He has a 15 minute drive into Basel and also excellent public transportation between the two cities. He pays much less for accommodation. You may want to find out about your kids schooling. I am not sure if they can go to Swiss school if you live in Germany.

Hi! I've been living in CH (Vaud) for 6 months with 4 children in public school here. Have also lived for a spell in Montpellier, France, where my two oldest children attended primaire and maternelle there. France is much cheaper, certainly! And I found the locals warmer with the children than here. France will also start your young ones (I don't know their ages...)in school earlier, so that by age 3, I think it is, they can attend public school.

Having said all that, I chose CH over France this time around for my children. I personally feel more confident in the quality of education here. The schools in this canton offer my children intensive French classes and this community is more international than where we lived in France, so they are not the only foreigners...The teachers are skilled at working with children from other cultures, whereas in Montpellier we were the only Americans who had lived in our particular village and my son's teacher just couldn't understand what our child was going through at the time...Also, we found more bullying in that school, whereas none (!) here!

You might find it well worth your while to visit schools where you consider living first and meet with staff there. You can always hang out with the children in the school playground when local children are around and take in the vibe.

Good luck!