diff --git a/docker-compose.yml b/docker-compose.yml
index caa0d6cda..2be975535 100644
--- a/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/docker-compose.yml
@@ -7,9 +7,10 @@ services:
       MARIADB_DATABASE: ushahidi
       MARIADB_USER: ushahidi
       MARIADB_PASSWORD: ushahidi
+      LANG: C.UTF_8
     command:
       - --character-set-server=utf8mb4
-      - --collation-server=utf8mb4_unicode_ci
+      - --collation-server=utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci
       # mysql 8.0
       # - --default-authentication-plugin=mysql_native_password
     ports:
diff --git a/phinx.php b/phinx.php
index 1b4fd5049..a2c86b74e 100644
--- a/phinx.php
+++ b/phinx.php
@@ -15,7 +15,14 @@
             'user' => getenv('DB_USERNAME'),
             'pass' => getenv('DB_PASSWORD'),
             'unix_socket' => getenv('DB_SOCKET'),
-            'charset' => 'utf8',
+            // afaik, phinx doesn't really use this for table creation in v0.11.7
+            // apparently it's used as a connection parameter
+            'charset' => 'utf8mb4',
+            // phinx guesses the charset to create the table with from this
+            // defaults to MariaDB's utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci, which is not supported by MySQL
+            // for MySQL you would want to use utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci (MySQL 8.0.17+)
+            // if you are stuck with MySQL 5.7, you can use utf8mb4_unicode_ci
+            'collation' => getenv('DB_COLLATION') ?: 'utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci'
         ],
     ]
 ];