Were there ever such programs in SW? I could imagine it happening in Pelly's Empire. Do we even get a hint of such programs existing?
I don't think anything has been directly mentioned. In Rogue Squadron they chose 2 pilots from thyferra because they needed bacta deals . . . but that's completely different i guess
Yes. Why do you think there were so many Mon Cals in leadership positions in the Rebel fleet? They needed the Mon Cal support, so they instituted a quota of leaders they had to fill with Mon Cal officers. You even see them fudging the numbers, with Pashna Starkiller being called a Mon Calamari in a few sources when he was really human
It is probably because the mon calls contributed a significant part of the fleet. i don't remember too many mon cals taking part in ground combat during that era. Some worlds might had implemented AA after the Pius Dea crusades for a while.
Yeah, one of them - without looking it up I couldn't say which one the quote comes from for certain, but it could be from "Rogue Squadron" itself. Ooryl is there right from the very start. In fact, both Stackpole's and Allston's X-Wing books have plenty of non-humans in the Squadrons - and Wedge doesn't seem to have much time for anyone who's even slightly species-ist. Nor does Corran - if you see remarks linking him to otters on this forum, it's because he dated a Selonian for a while - and only really stopped because she turned out to be allergic to his higher-than-normal skin acidity, and he turned out to be mildly allergic to her fur!
According to a popular Tatooine holonet pundit, Lando was made chief administrator of the Bespin mining facility due to affirmative action.
Well, there were the Rodian clan wars that happened mostly off-camera. And according to one source, Gand findsmen can become extremely petty and have that escalate into war until another sect steps in and tells them all to behave. And then there's the Mon Calamari/Quarren unrest. And we can't forget the Yuuzhan Vong, who are essentially biotech Daleks.
Don't forget the Yevethra in BFC --- and wasn't there some Kubaz/Verpine trouble at one point? (a ship load of Verpine body-parts comes to mind).
There was a problem with Kubaz trafficking Verpine corpses. And the trouble with Kubaz doesn't stop there, as there are plenty more insectoid species for them to ogle hungrily.