diff --git a/spacy/symbols.pyx b/spacy/symbols.pyx
index 712bef9a3..7254297d4 100644
--- a/spacy/symbols.pyx
+++ b/spacy/symbols.pyx
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+from __future__ import unicode_literals
+
 IDS = {
     "": NIL,
     "IS_ALPHA": IS_ALPHA,