diff --git a/tests/test_cursor.py b/tests/test_cursor.py
index ec76918b..d5223860 100755
--- a/tests/test_cursor.py
+++ b/tests/test_cursor.py
@@ -29,9 +29,10 @@ import psycopg2.extensions
 import unittest
 from .testutils import (ConnectingTestCase, skip_before_postgres,
     skip_if_no_getrefcount, slow, skip_if_no_superuser,
-    skip_if_windows, unicode)
+    skip_if_windows)
 
 import psycopg2.extras
+from psycopg2.compat import text_type
 
 
 class CursorTests(ConnectingTestCase):
@@ -75,7 +76,7 @@ class CursorTests(ConnectingTestCase):
         snowman = u"\u2603"
 
         def b(s):
-            if isinstance(s, unicode):
+            if isinstance(s, text_type):
                 return s.encode('utf8')
             else:
                 return s
diff --git a/tests/test_sql.py b/tests/test_sql.py
index 1c20997c..81b22a4e 100755
--- a/tests/test_sql.py
+++ b/tests/test_sql.py
@@ -26,10 +26,11 @@ import datetime as dt
 import unittest
 from .testutils import (ConnectingTestCase,
     skip_before_postgres, skip_before_python, skip_copy_if_green,
-    unicode, StringIO)
+    StringIO)
 
 import psycopg2
 from psycopg2 import sql
+from psycopg2.compat import text_type
 
 
 class SqlFormatTests(ConnectingTestCase):
@@ -64,7 +65,7 @@ class SqlFormatTests(ConnectingTestCase):
         s = sql.SQL(u"select {0} from {1}").format(
             sql.Identifier(u'field'), sql.Identifier('table'))
         s1 = s.as_string(self.conn)
-        self.assert_(isinstance(s1, unicode))
+        self.assert_(isinstance(s1, text_type))
         self.assertEqual(s1, u'select "field" from "table"')
 
     def test_compose_literal(self):
diff --git a/tests/testutils.py b/tests/testutils.py
index d70e091e..3bb72e20 100644
--- a/tests/testutils.py
+++ b/tests/testutils.py
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ import platform
 import unittest
 from functools import wraps
 from .testconfig import dsn, repl_dsn
+from psycopg2.compat import text_type
 
 # Python 2/3 compatibility
 
@@ -39,14 +40,12 @@ if sys.version_info[0] == 2:
     long = long
     reload = reload
     unichr = unichr
-    unicode = unicode
 else:
     # Python 3
     from io import StringIO
     from importlib import reload
     long = int
     unichr = chr
-    unicode = str
 
 
 # Silence warnings caused by the stubbornness of the Python unittest
@@ -89,7 +88,7 @@ class ConnectingTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
     def assertQuotedEqual(self, first, second, msg=None):
         """Compare two quoted strings disregarding eventual E'' quotes"""
         def f(s):
-            if isinstance(s, unicode):
+            if isinstance(s, text_type):
                 return re.sub(r"\bE'", "'", s)
             elif isinstance(first, bytes):
                 return re.sub(br"\bE'", b"'", s)