Mysql::Error: #HY000Illegal mix of collations (latin1_swedis

while parsing the xml i try to read user name which having some Special
charcter,so while parsing i got the error :-> Mysql::Error:
#HY000Illegal mix of collations (latin1_swedish_ci,IMPLICIT) and
(utf8_general_ci,COERCIBLE) for operation ‘like’: SELECT * FROM users
WHERE (firstname like ‘€uromole’) LIMIT 1
(ActiveRecord::StatementInvalid) i call like [ user =
User.find(:first,:conditions=>[“firstname like ?”,node[‘id’]]) ]
help me to solve this issue…