diff --git a/dotCMS/src/main/java/com/dotcms/languagevariable/business/LegacyLangVarMigrationHelper.java b/dotCMS/src/main/java/com/dotcms/languagevariable/business/LegacyLangVarMigrationHelper.java
index ccc69261cd43..d80e4d4cd359 100644
--- a/dotCMS/src/main/java/com/dotcms/languagevariable/business/LegacyLangVarMigrationHelper.java
+++ b/dotCMS/src/main/java/com/dotcms/languagevariable/business/LegacyLangVarMigrationHelper.java
@@ -184,7 +184,7 @@ Optional <Locale> localeFromTag(final String cmsLanguage) {
      */
     private void migrateFileContents(final Path path, final Language language, final List<String> success, final List<String> fails) throws IOException {
         Logger.info(this,String.format("-> Migrating variables for language: %s_%s", language.getLanguageCode(), language.getCountryCode()));
-        final List<String> lines = Try.of(() -> Files.readAllLines(path, StandardCharsets.ISO_8859_1))
+        final List<String> lines = Try.of(() -> Files.readAllLines(path, StandardCharsets.UTF_8))
                 .getOrElseThrow(e -> new IOException(String.format("Could not read file: %s", path), e));
         if (lines.isEmpty()) {
             Logger.warn(this,String.format("File '%s' is empty. Moving on...", path));